Kamiyā Yuu believed that 'Fate/Zero' had two protagonists.
The first was Saber. Regardless of whether Gen Urobuchi had deliberately intended to develop her character, the influence of the preceding work meant that audiences would inevitably pay greater attention to her.
The other was the character Urobuchi had truly wanted to portray: Kiritsugu Emiya, a peculiar exception among Japanese anime protagonists.
Like virtually every Japanese anime protagonist, Kiritsugu Emiya stood firmly on the side of justice.
However, his understanding of justice went far beyond what ordinary people could comprehend.
He treated himself as the scales by which justice was measured, eliminating anything that might cause those scales to tip out of balance.
Kiritsugu wasn't a particularly likable character.
The two aspects of his story that drew the most criticism from audiences were his willingness to sacrifice his wife in pursuit of his ideals and his ultimate failure to achieve those ideals.
Sacrificing one's wife for a higher cause wasn't necessarily unacceptable in fiction.
But if that cause ultimately failed, the character would become nothing more than a thoroughly unlikable, cold-blooded scumbag.
What if the Holy Grail hadn't been corrupted?
What if Kiritsugu Emiya's wish had actually come true?
What kind of ending would that have produced?
Kamiyā Yuu believed that Gen Urobuchi had undoubtedly considered this possibility and had even expanded upon it in another of his works.
That work also explored human nature and justice, and its true protagonist was once again an entity that regarded itself as the scales of justice: the Sibyl System.
In 'Psycho-Pass', an anime whose screenplay was written by Gen Urobuchi, the Sibyl System was composed of several hundred members of a new type of humanity who possessed a condition known as criminal asymptomaticity.
These individuals held beliefs remarkably similar to those of Kiritsugu Emiya.
They believed wholeheartedly in their own righteousness.
Even when committing crimes or murder, they naturally assumed that their actions were justified.
The Sibyl System, formed from the brains of hundreds of these individuals, was the central element of the anime.
It could monitor people's psychological states, assess their mental health, and predict their likelihood of committing crimes.
Through these capabilities, it sought to establish an ideal utopian society.
If Kiritsugu Emiya's wish had been fulfilled, he would probably have similarly transformed the entire world.
This raised another question.
Was a world like the one depicted in 'Psycho-Pass' genuinely good for ordinary people?
Was it right to judge the correctness of human thoughts and behavior based on something called a Crime Coefficient?
Setting aside unstable factors, Kamiyā Yuu believed that such a system was fundamentally viable.
It could function much like a constitution.
Even if minor errors existed, the system as a whole would maintain the stability and development of human society, allowing the majority of people to live in peace.
Consider a simple example.
The world might someday experience a rebellion by intelligent machines, similar to the crisis depicted in 'The Terminator'.
Did that mean humanity should never develop artificial intelligence or intelligent robotics?
Yet Japanese anime generally portrayed such systems in a negative light.
In many cases, establishing such a system was the ultimate ambition of the final antagonist.
The Sibyl System in 'Psycho-Pass' was portrayed more like a defective mechanism that obstructed social progress.
Other similar examples included the Human Instrumentality Project in 'Neon Genesis Evangelion', Madara's objective in 'Naruto', and the emperor's plan to create a world without lies in 'Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion'.
To understand why Japanese anime so frequently criticized such approaches, one had to look beyond the works themselves and examine the social values of ordinary Japanese people.
After all, Japanese society placed such emphasis on not inconveniencing others that even people contemplating suicide might worry about causing trouble for those around them.
For this reason, Aokigahara Forest at the foot of Mount Fuji had become notorious as a destination for suicide.
Some people who wanted to end their lives but didn't wish to inconvenience those around them would travel there and quietly take their own lives.
Exploring the mentality of not wanting to trouble others revealed another, deeper psychological tendency.
An attitude originally intended to benefit the collective could become transferred onto individuals, resulting in an excessive emphasis on the uniqueness and importance of every other person.
It sounded complicated, but Kamiyā Yuu believed it could be summarized in one sentence:
The unstable tendency to alternate between genuine saintliness and hypocritical, self-righteous compassion.
Neither entirely saintly nor entirely hypocritical.
Consequently, a social structure that could already be described as approaching a utopia would naturally be treated as evil.
After all, just like Kiritsugu Emiya, it sacrificed a small minority to preserve justice for the overwhelming majority.
Looking across Gen Urobuchi's best-known anime works—'Fate/Zero', 'Psycho-Pass', 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica', and 'Expelled from Paradise'—one could see his recurring exploration of these ideas.
Although the endings differed, he had never truly escaped this particular framework.
Of course, that was also one of the biggest reasons for his fame and for his nickname, the "Warrior of Love."
Japanese audiences simply loved this sort of thing.
Kamiyā Yuu had never wanted to confine himself within a fixed framework, nor did he wish to follow exactly in Gen Urobuchi's footsteps.
He respected 'Fate/Zero' as an original work by Urobuchi.
However, by incorporating his own understanding, he had shaped Kiritsugu Emiya into a far more complicated character.
In the revised version of 'Fate/Zero', even though Kiritsugu wouldn't receive a happy ending, he would remain faithful to his beliefs and convictions from beginning to end.
In the final conclusion, Kiritsugu Emiya, having lost everything, would discover his one remaining source of salvation.
Shirou Emiya.
Unlike the original, Kiritsugu wouldn't simply end his story as a pitiful, broken man.
As a loser who had lost everything, he would behave like a desperate gambler, placing his one remaining stake on Shirou Emiya.
No, even calling Shirou a stake would be giving Kiritsugu too much credit.
This detail would become an important plot thread when Kamiyā Yuu eventually adapted the Heaven's Feel route of 'Fate/stay night'.
The anime would display a certain cruelty toward Kiritsugu Emiya, but Kamiyā Yuu would leave the right to judge whether the character was good or evil entirely to the audience.
There was also another character in 'Fate/Zero' who stood in complete opposition to Kiritsugu Emiya.
He was probably the only truly decent person involved in the Fourth Holy Grail War.
Kariya Matou.
Kariya had originally distanced himself from his family of magi and lived an ordinary life as someone who had turned his back on his magical lineage.
However, after learning that Sakura Tohsaka had been adopted into the Matou family and discovering the desperate circumstances she faced, he decided to participate in the Holy Grail War at any cost.
His demand was simple.
If he emerged victorious, Sakura Matou would be returned to the Tohsaka family.
Compared to Kiritsugu Emiya, Kariya Matou was an antihero who would be much more likely to win the affection of Japanese audiences.
This was especially true because the person he wanted to save was an adorable little girl.
Kariya and Kiritsugu were fundamentally similar, yet their principles of action were opposite.
Kiritsugu Emiya was a killer in the name of justice.
Kariya Matou was an antihero.
Nevertheless, their eventual fates were hardly any better than each other's.
After the Fourth Holy Grail War, Kiritsugu Emiya was deprived even of the right to see his own biological daughter.
He would spend the remainder of his life burdened by regret.
As for Kariya Matou, he ultimately failed to save anyone.
Sakura Matou, the very person he had wanted to protect, regarded him as "foolish."
Before his death, he dreamed of living happily alongside Aoi Tohsaka, Sakura Tohsaka, and Rin Tohsaka.
He remained lost in that dream until the moment he died.
In the Fourth Holy Grail War, every participant was ultimately a loser, with the exception of the "Pleasure" duo.
And even that duo couldn't truly be considered the victors of the Holy Grail War.
Perhaps that was precisely because neither of them had ever genuinely desired the Holy Grail in the first place.