Sae was cursing himself. How did you even persuade him to agree to this interview? Why does he care that this is your favorite channel? He doesn't care.
At least “The Sae Itoshi” isn't supposed to care.
Yet he does. He in fact cares.
And here he is in this chair answering questions from his fans.
At this point he really had enough. They’ve asked him more about his private life than they should ever need to know and there are only a few too many excuses he can counter them with.
Like for god’s sake, why would anyone want to know what his favorite show was as a child?? And who are they to know…
“Alright next question, someone asked, what's your favorite song? One you listen to on repeat?” The reporter said. Her voice sounded cheerful yet something in Sae cracked. Oh no. Not this again.
First his favorite show and now this.
He is going to blow up on the internet that's for sure…
A moment of silence passes as he tries thinking of anything.
“I guess it's Swim by Chase Atlantic.. that's a good song..” he said, outright lying.
Sure it was a great song. In fact his girlfriend loved it a ton. He even listened to it in the car on the daily. So yeah he knew that song.
Yet that tone was filled with panic.
What he forgot was that this interview is actually live. It's going as we speak.
That only registered in him when his phone started ringing. Now that was his favorite song. That's how he knew it was you. His beloved girlfriend.
You had this habit of messing with his phone. Way back when you first discovered his taste you had to use his song for the ringtone. Both of his favorites in one tune.
Except he was sure you were gonna be mad for lying so much.
He sure as hell prayed that the microphone doesn't catch up his ringtone. A mistake he couldn't admit to was forgetting to mute his phone. Sure the sound was low.. but oh no.
“I have to take this.. hold on.” He wasn't about to throw off his girlfriend for the sake of a stupid interview. Not even if it was live.
The reporter nodded and sat back into her chair. A very thoughtful face masked her. The camera might have not picked it up but she heard it. That was such a.. cute song.
“Sae Itoshi, you lied for the 6th time in a row!! At least tell them your favorite song!!” He winced at the loud exclamation.
“Oh come on, it's not a big deal.” He tried pushing it off. Yet you went on and on how much this means to his fans. What melted him was how much it actually meant to you.
After he put his phone down he looked into the camera with a frown. “Actually my favorite song is Suisei by tofubeats and Kariya Seira…”
And there he was. So easily giving in to his girlfriend. The most amazing woman he knew.
✘ ☠ ✘ —— AH, YES; MARCH 14TH. White Day; the day men are expected to reciprocate the gifts they received a month earlier, though that's never been how Kariya celebrated the day. Even if Uzuki never gifted him anything, he still saved his Yen for three months to buy her something she'd adore. This year, like every year, he handed her a plain white box tied with a silvery-white bow.
❝ —— Happy White Day~ ❞ Kariya hummed, leaning in to peck Uzuki on the check.
When she opens the box, she’ll find new, white designer boots, a matching white belt -- Tucked secretly at the bottom in a separate, folded piece of white tissue paper is an adorable white thong. Cumulatively, Kariya’s even broker than he was before, but spoiling Uzuki was ... Well, the highlight of his March for the past several years.
Can you really believe it's been a year since Oos Ch11? It really felt like yesterday what with the amount of stuff that's been going on lately, that I haven't been thinking about it as much as I used to. I guess that means I'm better than Tenma at diverting my thoughts, lol.
I hope you don't mind me putting this in an ask because ff.net doesn't allow pictures (╥﹏╥)
Sorry I forgot to share this second one after Ch11
My bingo list is blooming 𐙚⋆°｡⋆♡ (blue means halfway/kind of, red means MWAHAAHAHAhA)
The second their teacher said "You will be getting in groups of four" I KNEW SOMETHING WAS UP
The fact that Tenma's surname is alphabetically near Hikaru, Kariya AND Sakura lmao. AND THE WAY IT ENDED UP BEING KARIYA WAS IMPECCABLE WRITING, ABSOLUTE CINEMA (see link below, just remove the !)
https://!limewire.com!/d/MWcEP!#rVWvM0mn7S!
https://!www.youtube.com!/watch?v=!6gJ6VEG8Y4I!
(Just remove the !)
For the link above, this is the vibe that the Minori-Tenma interaction was giving off, especially from 0:20 lmao when she flipped him off
That whole argument sounded like something I'd have with my siblings lol. But the fact that Tenma was there for her was so reminiscent of his old self, the kind and caring little asshole
-considering they both went to Bakumatsu Era, and Kariya knows Tenma went to Sengoku Era as well. but he just can't prove it
my absolute favourite line. absolute masterpiece. story of my life
But the saddest line, one I almost overlooked-
NOOOOOO TENMA DON'T CUT HER OFF (╥﹏╥) *heart shattered*
And my other favourite line (sorry abt the bad quality)
Anyway! I hope these weren't too corny or anything! Btw, I really appreciate that this chapter was mainly about character developments/relationships, it was really cool to read.
Thank you so much for this chapter :) OoS is, as one might guess, my absolute favourite story and I couldn't be happier!
This post was everything I didn't know I needed omg, I laughed so hard :'D
''Can you believe it's been a year since chapter 11'' YES I CAN CAUSE IT'S ME (someone commented on whether I'd fix my updating schedule but what's there to fix?? I'm very consistent with my once-a-year updates)
love the memes so much lmao they really make my day pls don't stop making them
Also, I may or may not have already filled in the bingo chart with what I know :D I'm not spoiling anything but I still think the ''kidnapping'' box is a hack, cuz I already confirmed that - so, compromise. I'll allow it if you take a guess who's gonna be kidnapped.
LMAO YEAH BELIEVE ME EVERYTHING IN OOS HAS A PURPOSE. I'm tricking y'all into thinking it's slice of life but I promise you it's gonna get hit by plot and go off the rails real bad :D and I'm laying down the groundwork for it rn. Even just developing relevant OCs for later!
LMAO THAT VIDEO EDIT CRACKED ME UP y'all I don't even know what Kariya is gonna do except mess with things and honestly that's EXACTLY what OoS needs
Tenma really channeled his inner AR self in that scene with Minori didn't he? Except he can cook and AR!Tenma can't WHICH I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE UNTIL THE MEME LMAO
How is the same character in two different stories so similar yet so different? They're both chaotic messes but the vibe of it is so different??? How??? OoS!Tenma feels like, at first glance, a mild-mannered, relatively functioning young adult AND THEN YOU GET THE TRAUMA (dw dw he'll become more dumb and reckless later when we get plot lol) and AR!Tenma feels like a mischievous poltergeist I-don't-know-the-meaning-of-responsibility kinda guy who turns out to be secretly scarily talented and also he's growing more unstable with the day???
Oh.
Oh I think I get it now- it's the trauma lmao
OoS!Tenma started out with trauma so he's relatively adept at handling it (as in yeah he has breakdowns but not as bad as AR!Tenma - that'll become clearer later hahaha)??? And also much less energetic and cheerful cuz of the aforementioned trauma. Whereas AR!Tenma doesn't (why the hell did my autocorrect turn that into ''dies''??) really have any trauma at the start so he's like, sunshine incarnate, and then the trauma happens during the story and he's bad at handling it.
Huh, no wonder they feel so different yet not.
LMAO the feudal systems thing was fun to write, we love chaotic dumb Tenma :'D
omg yes you got it!! It was about Aoi >:D
Let's all call out Kariya lol
So glad you liked it! It was a bit of a slow chapter so I was a little worried it might be boring, and OoS doesn't get as much response as AR so it's a bit hard to gauge the reactions sometimes. So good to hear that it landed well ^.^ Thanks for the reaction and all the memes, it really made my day when I first read it and again when I read it just now to respond!
oh Kirino... i love him, but also i wish the writers had treated him better.
first, i gotta say his design is really pretty. the pink hair, the gorgeous azure blue eyes... you cannot convince me he doesn't spend two hours in the bathroom to prepare every morning.
i'm struggling to find anything to say about his character, however... because most of what i want to say is headcanon. and the reason is tied to my main grip with his writing: EVERYTHING is about Shindou. from his description and lines in the games to his arc in CS, it feels like, if Kirino is allowed to exist outside of his relationship with Shindou, the writers will die. i'm not joking, in the game, outside of moments where Kirino is relevant in the main plot, his lines will exclusively talk about Shindou, how he's worried about him, or happy for him... bro. please.
and what makes it worse is that... i really don't like how their relationship is portrayed. to put it simply, it feels one-sided. Kirino is always jumping at Shindou's aid, and almost seems to worship him at times. what does Shindou do in return? tell him to get a grip when he's getting harassed. and i can't even say Shindou doesn't care about Kirino, because he (internally) expresses concern several times. he just never outright says it to Kirino - which is in character, Shindou is the type to give others space so they can process their problems. but, in this case in particular, that's exactly what holds their relationship back.
Kirino's arc in CS, the supposed resolution of his inferiority complex... doesn't resolve much. and i blame the fact that there's no confrontation between the two, no argument that could make Shindou fully realise how much Kirino envies him. because, once again, Shindou prefers to give Kirino space to figure himself out, when that's the one time he should be doing anything but that. and, by the end, Kirino simply accepts that his role is to stay back and support Shindou (which, by the way, is once again still tied to Shindou, for the love of everything this child won't die if he's given his own existence). i do like that CS focused on Kirino a bit more, and his arc with Jeanne (yes im writing Jeanne not Joan, i don't condone English butchering her name) was pretty sweet, but gosh i wish we'd had a confrontation between rantaku. if you're gonna make Kirino's character entirely about Shindou, at least make them feel like actual friends who struggle to understand each other at first but eventually become stronger once they talk it out.
the only arc Kirino has that's not directly to Shindou is the one with Kariya (altho it doesn't help rantaku friendship not feeling balanced either considering Shindou outright ignores his friend asking for support). and, outside of the entirety of Raimon somehow not noticing that Kirino is getting harassed, i do think this arc is good for his character. we get to see Kirino's more impulsive side, and that he tends to get angry easily and jumps to conclusion too quickly. but we also learn that he has a good eye for detail, as long as he can focus on observing. i would've loved to see him being left on the bench a few more times so he could decipher the oposing team's tactics.
this whole rant may have made it seem like i don't like Kirino, but i do. i love him. or, rather, i love a headcanon version of him that's allowed to be more than "Shindou's bestie".
i think Kirino is friendly and connects with people easily. during the Kariya arc, we see him go to talk to Tsurugi, whom, at this point, has only joined Raimon for a short while, and, outside of Tenma, most of the team probably still struggle to interact with an ex-seed. i like to imagine that Kirino is the first to try and become friends with Tsurugi. they both enjoy fashion, and Kirino's social nature would balance well with Tsurugi being more quiet.
and, yeah, that's mostly it. i'm struggling to put my thoughts in order so i hope this was intelligible lmao. i love Kirino as long as i don't pay attention to the 95% of Shindou-obssessed characterisation. and i don't even hate rantaku, i just hate their canon being so messed up.
i was gonna put a gif of Kirino eating candy to conclude this but i can't find it. oh well.
First off here have some art made by my friend rain
So. Hikaru is an absolute cutie pie. He joins Raimon without really knowing what he's doing because he learnt that soccer was important to his uncle Reiji. What is his relationship to him? We'll never know no thanks Level-5 you had a golden opportunity in Galaxy.
He seems afraid and ashamed of this family heritage, though. He tries to hide it from Endou and Kidou thinking they won't let him join if they know.
Hikaru is shown as being extremely naive and clumsy in the episode he's introduced, falling prey to Kariya's prank (the senpais were not ready).
He also makes the cutest faces later on! He turns out to be quite the big fanboy of soccer even if he does not play really well. We see this mainly in the Gryphon movie with this famous screenshot below.
Omg I love him so much. Anyways.
He of course shines during the Hakuren match when he is able to perform the Double Wing hissatsu tactics where Tenma and Nishiki failed. That, alongside the episode where he's introduced, establishes him as a quick and intuitive learner.
He also appears to have some difficulties to assert himself as during the Kidou trainer arc, he does not really want to skip practice but gets dragged along by his friend and senpai Amagi. He clearly seems to be struggling to say no.
However, he also shows how great of a friend he can be around the Genei match and that's my favourite character arc for him.
By this point his friendship with Amagi is already established, and when Amagi is upset about playing against Genei, Hikaru notices and takes care of him. I love this umbrella scene. He finds Amagi under the rain and helps him take shelter and get his feelings out. He is a lovely friend every step through. He does not divulge what Amagi tells him to the Team at any point.
And then, Yukie comes and asks him to relay a message to Amagi. Hikaru accepts because he can't say no... but he does not do it. In the end, he does not do it and go directly to Yukie telling her she should be the one doing it. Which is incredibly mature for his age (he's a first year remember) and a very healthy reaction. Remember: Amagi/Mahoro/Yukie are his seniors by two years and he helps them sort their years old grief.
It's also during this match that Hikaru first uses his hissatsu (or in the Gryphon movie depending on where you put it in the timeline), Extend Zone. And it's an amazing hissatsu. I love it, the visuals, OMG, it's so perfect.
As the animé goes on, we also see he has a strong friendship with Kariya, being both first years and both having joined the club later during the year, one match only apart. They seem to be getting along very well despite their completely opposite characters (and the fact that Kariya pranked him but I mean Kariya is close with Kirino whom he bullied). That can be seen especially in the last two GO episodes, you know the recap special.
And unfortunately... that's where it ends for him. Chrono Stone sabotaged him as it did with most of the GO cast. Seriously it's not Galaxy that sabotaged character development it's CS. Anyways.
Potential interactions with Kidou and Teikoku regarding his family? Gone. He has Koutei Penguin in the games but nothing is done of it.
MixiMax and character arc he could have gotten in CS? Stolen by Zanark. I like Zanark but damn... and who said that the Ultimate Team could not have reserves??? (still not the level of theft that Torb commited on Kariya. But still).
When Kageyama returns in Galaxy? Nothing. In the games we have a few InaLink chat messages where he is like "wait is that my uncle" but that's all.
He had so much potential and it feels so... unfinished. It's so sad.
Do I ship him? I used to ship him with Kariya, and while I still see the potential, I like to think of them as platonic besties. I headcanon Hikaru as aroace agender, he just is here and is vibing. I also headcanon Amagi to be aroace, because aroace are drawn to each other as a flock even before they figure it out I swear.
Anyways. He is my little precious underveloped cutie pie, I love him, he is the cutest penguin and he is my baby son. Takemi is my child but Hikaru? My baby. My penguin baby. My penguinling. Anyways.
My friends asked me if I wanted to join the School AU with their OCs and I thought for the longest time before bringing Lya to the party. Then I kinda just felt like it and drew the whole gang :D They came out beautifully so more information and separated images undercut!
The First one is of course Lya the Blossom
Main PC
Harpy transforms, Mate for Life.
Wears all white if she can.
Very light in weight, makes her defiant attempts usually ineffective.
Went through a lot to make things easier for her loved ones.
Skilled in segg but doesn't really enjoy it anymore at this point if it's not with her loved one. What she seeks in segg with her lover is intimacy and the feeling of security.
Secretly a meanie. Gets jealous easily and envious of almost anyone, but doesn't show it or act on it often.
Despises the Temple to her core but believes Jordan is a genuinely good person. Wanted to fuck him just because.
Protective toward her lover and the children at the Orphanage.
Very insecure about her financial state. She tried to make money anytime she could.
CONSENT YOU MOTHERFU-
Can't cook. Literally. Keep her away from the kitchen.
Male Robin the Lover~ (Sorry I love this title)
The one and only.
Maybe he's trying his best, maybe he's hiding from something so terrible, who knows.
Love the purple color.
Easily scared and would cry out loud if Lya was there to reassure him and demand a lot of hugs, head pats, and kisses afterward.
Clingy as hell, but luckily he's cute just enough to let it pass.
Hell lots of freckles, everywhere all over his body even though he mostly stays at home or in the shades. Sensitive skin then.
Squishy belly.
Occasionally cross-dress when going on a date with Lya but keeps it as a hobby only.
Love to do makeup for Lya and skin care together.
Grow in height a LOT since the game started and wondering why Lya still stays the same, not that he complains about her growth of boobs and ass.
Lyah the Emancipated
The second PC, made with a lot of feast boots, almost all of the Vrel coins Lya earned.
Wears all black if he can.
Demonic Harpy Chimera Transforms.
Waiting for Robin's preg contents.
2m14. Larger body type, 6/6 physic, S athletic, Vengeful Sadist. Basically all offensive.
Fucking huge manboobs produce fucking lots of milk
Almost always wears a buttplug
The only one taller than him is Jordan.
"Blood moon? Fuck Ivory Wraith I'm out."
Still works at Strip Club, mostly because he loves wearing bunny suits and he wants to look out for Darryl.
Chef. Let him cook.
Housekeeping skill F-. Drops and crashes everything every time trying to clean or deco his room.
Doesn't know how to smile but will unconsciously do so when he's near Robin.
Doesn't understand why he's still sometimes mistaken as female.
Fem Robin the Lover~
So cute and squishy.
People unconsciously smile when she smiles.
"Too precious must protect."
Her weight is top secret.
Knows it all too well that Lyah intentionally feeds her more sweet treats and creamy drinks every day during every school break but can't resist the temptation of sweets.
Accepts gaining weight during the leisurely times, but has to lose it a bit before school starts again so she can fit into the school's uniforms.
Pretty proud that her lover is a chef at the biggest Cafe in town.
Slightly less freckle than male Robin. Just slightly.
Wardrobe full of checkered pattern clothes.
Of course she can cook well.
Perfect housewife material.
Timid when using strap-on but usually gets absorbed in the moment too much she forgor to pull the buttplug out before diving her strap in.
Lyah is not complaining though so it's all good.
Last but not least Kariya the Alter Ego!
"Well somebody has to go to prison and asylum and... hmmm"
Devil transforms
Full name Sesshouin Kariya. Kariya means "Midnight' Swallow"
Not a new save file but one of Lya's older saves. Hence the Alter Ego title.
Was born cuz I was bored and wanted to go to places Lya and Lyah can't go because they're worried about their lover being left alone.
They don't set a love interest because of that, so they can't get attached and can freely roam everywhere.
Enjoy segg as it is, purely seeking more pleasure day by day.
Drooling Masochist. Prefer group.
Get bored easily but are also quick to forget, so after a while that very same thing may pique their interest again.
Zones out a lot. Absent-minded. Sometimes clueless to things that are not segg-related.
"Ahhhh Nii-chan, nee-chan, help me it's 23:55 already and I forgor to cum inside somebody today waaaaaaaa-!!"
Intentionally dress more feminine because they love showing off.
Fate/Zero Rewatch Analysis: Redemption of a Tragedy
What took Fate/Zero from being a good anime to being one of my favorites? Well it was one of the first anime I ever watched and the first Fate series I watched so it had a lot of groundwork to set before I could even start thinking about the deeper meaning of the story. It stuck with me as a show with rich philosophy, but ultimately flawed in a few core areas. Coming away from it now, its one of my top 5 anime of all time.
From what I remember to now, three core areas of the show improved on rewatch, the arcs of Kirei, Kiritsugu and Arthuria.
Let's start with Saber. First watch through I did not like this part of the story at all. I thought she was hated way more than she should have been and punished by the narrative for no reason. Coming into it now I can see how her lacking crucial pieces of information caused her to spiral into internal turmoil, which I could deeply relate to as someone with anxiety. This spiraling not only sets up a redemption arc in the following series, but it also plays out like a classic tragedy in the literature sense.
Saber has no idea that Berserker was infused with the aspect of madness at summoning. The narrative barely draws any attention to it, but Saber is assuming this is Lancelot's true form when in fact its the shadow of all his doubts. Yes these doubts are real but they are blown completely out proportion and Saber has no idea. After Kariya dies and Lancelot has been dealt a fatal blow, we get a brief bit of lucidness return to Berserker and his final words affirm that everyone at the roundtable did in fact look up to Arthuria. Maybe it wasn't the same type of leadership that Rider has, but they certainly didn't hate her. Without knowing the specifics, and trying to take Rider's words to heart she ends up doubting herself much more than warranted.
Her relationship to Kiritusugu is also an aspect of her character that is tragic. As said in the banquet of kings attended by Rider and Archer, Saber is a woman of ideals and she shoulders the entire world. I don't know how I didn't realize this on my first watch, but she is identical to Kiritusugu in this way! The tragedy is that they were so similar yet their ideals differed too drastically and thus they couldn't get along.
Finally, lets talk about her destroying the grail, a moment that confused me in my first watch because I didn't understand how dangerous it really was. Of course neither did she when she was ordered to destroy it and thus classic tragedy strikes again. I'll talk more about the grail when we get to Kiritusugu, but as you can see Saber's entire character is built around tragedy created by misunderstandings and lack of knowledge. It is dark, but its not badly written.
Before moving on, let's talk about Iskandar and Gigamesh, two characters who I loved my first watch and have an even greater appreciation of now. To break down their kingly traits per the banquet:
Iskandar: Leadership
Gigamesh: Ownership
Arthuria: Ideals
Rider vs Archer is one of my top anime moments of all time with this understanding. Not only is it devastating and heroic, but its also a clash of ideals. Iskandar inspired his legion with dreams while Gigamesh presents the harsh reality. Gigamesh claims to own the entire world and Iskandar wants the entire world. Gigamesh dominates and claims ownership of things whereas Iskandar inspires and doesn't subjugate. Its something we can see reflected in real life: defeating a king who *owns* seemingly everything around you is almost impossible. Its another tragedy that dreams cannot conquer the physical reality of some people simply owning more than you. These two are in the forefront of my mind in an age where everyone in power is a Gigamesh not an Iskandar.
I had no idea what was happening the first time Kiritusugu entered the grail and now I see the problem facing him completely. The grail tells him "I can only use methods you know in order to create world peace" and then shows him that his methods always involve killing, just killing the smaller number of people. Its quite obviously telling Kiritusugu that if he uses it to get world piece its going to kill a lot of people. Kiritusugu is pissed because his whole thing is that he wanted to break the cycle of violence, but doesn't know how and so had to resort to a miracle.
He rejects the grail but also subsequently rejects his previous way of life to raise Shirou. The unspoken part here is that, yes, he could save people by going out and killing bad guys like he's been doing forever, but that isn't a real solution. The grail giving him the option to enact this solution on a wide scale made him realize that its a solution that doesn't work at scale.
By raising Shirou he hasn't given up on his larger aspirations he's simply passing them on to future generations. His unstated goal is to inspire Shirou to be someone who could have actually ended world conflict with the grail. Someone who knows a solution that doesn't involve violence because of how well he was raised. Not to say he actually intends Shirou to participate in a grail war, he just wants Shirou to be a good person. This is similar to how Iskandar passes on his dreams to Waiver at the end.
Indeed I think a core takeaway from Fate/Zero is meant to be that inspirational stories of heroes will help the next generation build a world we can't. A fitting theme for a prequel!
I also want to point out that Kiritusugu's father is a perversion of this idea. He was researching ways to preserve his own life so that he could continue researching the Root. I think its implied that he actually wasn't thrilled about the idea of passing on his legacy to his son considering he wasn't even training him in magic while secretly researching a way to keep himself alive. Of course this ends of leading to his downfall and the destruction of the entire island, punishment for betraying the natural means of progression.
This segways into Kirei because his ominous position at the end of the story is as Rin's substitute father. We end the show with him passing on the family crests to Rin. As the audience we know he's an evil bastard and this act is framed as culmination of this evil. Him giving Rin the same dagger that he killed her father with is fucked up in the most classic tragedy sense.
Kirei also wanted to kill his father and reveled in the idea that his father fucked up so badly that he became a demon. Of course, Kiritusugu killed his father and his surrogate mother, but there are 2 key differences: in the case of his mother he was actually sad about it and that both those kills were part of the old Kiritusugu's decision calculus. Whether they were right or wrong or saved people at the time, he's abandoned that way of life to live in a way the narrative sees more fondly: raising the next generation.
Kirei is a character whose arc I didn't understand on first watch, but I think that is simply because his arc is very unconventional in an already complicated story. Normally, an arc about finding how who you truly are is framed as a good thing, but in Kirei's case it just turns out that he's a despicable monster inside. I think if the entire show was focused on Kirei it would have absolutely dragged in the beginning when he was just a blank character, but thankfully the extended cast and the fact that he's part of a team distract from that long enough for him to start developing.
On second watch I also better understand *how* he comes to realization that he's a monster. Gigamesh notes that Kirei explained more about Kariya's situation and thus was interested in him. I think this moment works on multiple levels, because I fully expected the person he'd be most interested in to be Kiritusugu. Only later did I realize the reason Kariya excited him was because he loved watching him suffer (The Matou family head says it plainly later). Then, after he finds his father dead we get a tipping point as he realizes that his hate for his father was strong and that makes him a monster. It doesn't help that this entire time Gigamesh is whispering in his ear. He claims to be a passive observer but he knows ahead of time what type of person Kirei is and that's the reason he gives him the push he needs. If Kirei was just a guy who liked baseball, Gigamesh wouldn't have actually asked him to research the other masters.
The entire time is interest in Kiritusugu has just been a confusion on how Kiritusugu can have such strong ideals. Even after he figures out he's a monster, Kirei still doesn't have any ideals, any master plan of villainy. He just wants to see people suffer and drinks it up like wine. Its not a "I want to take over the world" type of evil, its relishing in the sensation of evil. I think this makes him an excellent foil to Kiritusugu and his arc from uncaring to evil is interesting for how rare it is.
Welp there's my analysis of what I got wrong in my first watch of Fate/Zero and how it redeemed itself. I do think its go some flaws, like the Rin episode that's completely disconnected from the plot and only exists to show off a fan favorite character (its still a good episode just not 10/10 like the rest of the show). I do also find Kiritusugu's total rejection of the grail confusing. By his understanding he could still wish for his family back. The grail even suggests this but he rejects that suggestion saying "3 million lives are worth more than you 2" and then proceeds not to actually make his original wish. I assume he didn't wish for his family because he was getting a sense that the grail was sus af but if so why not say that instead of the other line?
Anyway 10/10 anime in my opinion. At this point any complaint I have is a minor nitpick and not something that reduces the quality of the show by meaningful amount.
