September 23rd, 2014 
AstroNerdBoy Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA 2wei! Episode Final Thoughts
Fate/kaleid liner プリズマ☆イリヤ
Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei! – Final Thoughts
***SPOILERS***
When Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya came out, it was more of a parody of the mahou shoujo genre, taking most of the characters from the very popular Fate/stay night franchise to fill similar roles again. For the first series, it was pretty much standard magic girl stuff, taking heavy cues from Cardcaptor Sakura. In the end, it turned out to be funny as a parody, but also interesting as a story as Ilya, Miyu, Rin, and Luvia attempted to collect the seven Heroic Spirit Class Cards. Because the story was so intriguing, the door was opened for a sequel. Thus we have Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei!, which takes the ball and runs with it.
As with the first series, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei! only has ten episodes. My understanding is that this anime covers the first half of the Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei! manga. The anime covers two stories. The first story deals with the introduction of Kuro (aka, Chloe), a magically created twin of main character Ilya. Kuro comes about as the explanation for why Ilya was able to easily “install” the Archer Class Card and basically do incredible things without realizing it. Initially, Kuro’s hatred for Ilya makes no sense, but when the truth of her origins come out and she is revealed to be the original persona of Ilya whom Iri had sealed up to stop the Holy Grail war, it made sense.
Because Kuro is not a flesh and blood being, but one comprised of magic, she needs recharging. This was an area of the anime that I really didn’t like. In order to recharge, Kuro goes around force-snogging Ilya’s female friends and such. Naturally, these girls who say and act like they don’t want this, open their mouths for some super deep French kissing, with a side order of extra tongue. Naturally, the girls respond sexually to this, which was just so over the top. There were moments where I wondered if we were about to go into some lolicon hentai anime because that was the next logical step, following the rules of hentai logic. *_*
Until the mystery of Kuro is solved, the story making her the antagonist feels somewhat forced. It made no sense to me for Kuro to want to kill Ilya some of the time, then other times, Kuro wanted a normal life, complete with a love for her “oniichan,” the adopted Shirou. However, once the truth comes out, I really liked that Ilya’s mother, Iri, comes on scene to not only put her daughters under her authority, but to set things up so that Kuro could live a life as Iri’s daughter and Ilya’s sister. From that point on, Kuro and Ilya act like normal sisters and rivals, with Ilya desperate to be the “oneechan” in the family hierarchy.
Once the mystery of Kuro is solved, the second story kicks into gear in episode 8. Here, Magic Association Enforcer Bazett Fraga McRemitz arrives, and she’s not afraid of brutally beating up elementary school girls (even if they are fairly powerful magic girls) to obtain the seven Class Cards, including the one within Kuro. This is where the series took things to the next level as Bazett is pretty much an unstoppable opponent. There’s a bit of deus ex machina to get the girls out of trouble, but it plays well for the most part, setting up the next story of the series and the search for the mysterious eight card that should not exist.
It was these final three episodes that turned this series from being average fare with an excessive helping of lolicon (and yuri lolicon) ecchi fanservice into something really interesting and exciting. The different battles where Ilya, Kuro, Miyu, August, Rin, and Luvia go up against Bazett were pretty well done, in my opinion. I especially liked how rivals Rin and Luvia worked so well as a team, though I was disappointed to see that in order to retain their rivalry comedic elements, an attempt was made to push the big red reset button. Whether or not this succeeds remains to be seen. I’d rather see Rin and Luvia grow as characters rather than be purposefully stunted for cheap comedy material.
At only ten episodes, there still isn’t quite enough manga material to fully flesh out all of the episodes. At times, especially in the aftermath part of the final episode, there can be some noticeable drag when filler is added, but for the most part, I was not bothered by any filler. I just wish the aftermath elements in the final episode had been done a little better. However, the production team apparently decided not to go too far out on a limb, thus we get a rather boring segment within the episode, advertising the fact that there will be another anime series to pick up where Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei! left off.
In the end, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei! is a pretty enjoyable series, picking up the comedy and fun of the original series, but also improving on the story being told once Bazett arrived. My only real complaint was the unneeded, ecchi, loli fanservcice that centered around Kuro.
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[…] write some final thoughts about the series next week. In the meantime, despite some stretching at the end of the episode, I […]
Have to do it while the FSN anime airs to contain my hype. So let’s do it! ^_^
That made me scratch my head when I heard the first time they were only gonna make 10 episodes, especially after ep1, which clearly had filler material, aired. 2wei has 27 chapters (excluding bonus chapters/interludes) with three basic arcs (and some filler in-between). The Kuro arc, the Bazett arc and the Eighth Card arc.
People who complained that Bazett is only a mid-boss and that this is a stupid cliffhanger are totally right, because Bazett is a mid-boss. The remaining 11 chapters of 2wei are perhaps enough for six, maybe seven episodes. Unless Silver Link wants to add more filler, they will have to use either 3rei material or end the next cours (not a next season to me personally – more like split cours) with even less episodes.
Brace yourself, this aspect will not disappear in future episodes. I honestly thought Silver Link would tone the fanservice down for a bit, but they actually did the opposite and made it even more lewd, lol. ^_^ The kiss between Miyu and Kuro is two panels long in the manga, while it’s over thirty seconds long in the anime. Well, it’s not a major turn-off for me (I’m totally unaffected by this), but I guess it could be for other people. I actually think this infamous scene might boost sales in Japan instead, it definitely got some attention, when it was uploaded on nicovideo. DVD and BD sales are in safe midfield right now.
Agreed, that’s what I’ve been saying in the episode comments too. Once the truth is revealed everything actually makes sense. Kuro is a good character addition though and seems to be well received by the fans. This show needed a FSN-Ilya with Archer’s mischievous attitude (and his abilities!). I think all new characters Hiroyama introduced in his manga (Miyu and Kuro especially) are good characters.
Well, I wouldn’t see it as a reset-attempt. It’s clear because of their similar abilities that they can work well together and I understand why Rin mistrusts Luvia (and vice-versa). They act completely differently when it’s about the girls though and Luvia’s just acting tsundere towards Rin, so I’m not bothered by their constant bickering that doesn’t seem to develop.
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Without telling much, 2wei is a story that in many aspects mirrors FSN’s second route, Unlimited Blade Works, so I wonder if you will compare the two stories and find the similarities (besides the ones I pointed out) when watching the new anime series. Prisma Illya is different than the other Fate/ entries, it’s much more lighthearted and cheerful, yet by using the same setting and rules of the Nasuverse, it’s in essence still a Fate/ work and that is why it garners so many Fate/ fans (although I guess those who aren’t familiar with Fate/ won’t appreciate this series that much). It’s definitely a show made for Type-Moon fans.
Prisma Illya is built on the already successful and well developed Nasuverse and I think the same goes to its anime adaptation. This anime was basically bridging the time until FSN 2014 begins and rides on the success of the other FSN adaptations. I think 2wei Herz is either coming out this winter or in the next summer, I doubt it will air at the same time as FSN.
So… excluding the foreshadowing in 1ins, that would lead to the events of 2wei, Silver Link has been very faithful to the manga until now. The filler isn’t that bad, but being too faithful led to obvious pacing issues. On the other hand though, Silver Link is playing out the strengths of an anime adaptation and the fights are definitely better than they are in the manga. Some scenes are also reminiscent of CGs from Fate/stay night or Fate/hollow ataraxia (like Bazett using Fragarach: http://i.imgur.com/CZAFZK6.png).
What I also like is Hiroyama’s, the mangaka’s, involvement here and that Silver Link is listening to him. As I’ve said before, the fight in episode 8 was extended at his request, and while I couldn’t find any source that could prove it, I’m pretty sure Hiroyama told them of some of the mistakes he made in the manga that they should and did correct. Bazett for instance burns off her glove every time she uses Fragarach, a detail that was forgotten in the manga but not in the anime. (I have to take that compliment immediately back though because they didn’t show Miyu getting punched out of her Rider Install in the anime. :P)
As for the sound, well, I’ve noticed some new tracks and they finally decided to make use of some tracks that were already part of the OST from the last season, but were left unused. The tracks are as good as always and some of them are nods to the FSN VN, but I felt like Silver Link were running out of fighting tracks because they kept using the same ones in every new episode (especially noticeable in the Bazett arc). OP was good, not as good as the first season’s OP though, while the ED was slightly better than last year, but still rather forgettable in my opinion. Voice actors were also very good again, and while I already heard Chiwa Saito voice Kuro on a Drama CD and I knew she is a very good actress, she impressed me a lot, especially in episode 6 when the truth about Kuro was revealed.
Visuals are as good as last season’s (though they definitely upped this and used a lot of money in the fight scenes) with the same flaws of some drawing inconsistencies, but not very noticeable. The drawings are in my opinion worse than Hiroyama’s, but they are still decent. CG usage was not too much for my taste (except the pegasus) and benefitted in the fight scenes a lot and I have to admit that in my opinion the Magical Girl transformation in ep1 looked better than in Sailor Moon Crystal, lol.
So, all in all a well-done adaptation of a good Fate/ manga, that works a lot better if one has the knowledge from previous works like hollow ataraxia, Zero and stay night of course. 2wei isn’t finished yet though, so I personally would not recommend people to marathon it yet, unless they want to continue experiencing the story by reading the manga. Anyway, I’m looking forward to 2wei Herz. And if one needs to distract oneself for a bit (not that this is necessary with FSN 2014 airing now), there’s always dancing Ilya and Miyu. 😉 :
http://illya.malphasmedia.com/
[Trivia note: 2wei Herz isn’t that bad German actually, as some people thought it is, because it supposedly should be “2wei Herzen” (two hearts). “2wei Herz” can also mean “two of hearts”, when one is talking about cards(!).]
Speaking of the manga, if you want to read it, I’d recommend downloading it. Other manga reader sites are either of worse quality (like mangafox) or for some reason don’t have all chapters (like batoto).
Being ignorant, it didn’t bother me.
Weird. I didn’t realize there were so few source manga chapters left.
Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me.
OK.
I’ll have to try to pay attention to that.
Which is what a good anime adaptation should do, IMO.
*LOL* I was reminded of the old Hamster Dance site from back in the day, only in a much better way. ^_^
I’ll have to find where to d/l it from. I’ll be needing reading material for an upcoming trip.
I’d like to argue that Fate Prisma asks the question what a miracle means, rather than what it means to be a hero. In that sense, it actually is more of a response to Fate/Zero in my opinion, rather than FSN, since Fate/Zero treats both question with equal weight, while FSN emphasizes the question of the Hero. Fate Prisma is basically a rebuttal to Fate/Zero’s conception of a miracle, disguised in Mahou Shojou and lots of loli fanservice.
Basically, the ending of Fate/Zero reveals that in the Holy Grail System, your wishes can only be executed in the means by which you can conceive it being done by – the Grail does not supply the concept of the means, it comes from the wisher him or herself. Fate/Zero presents it as a limitation and therefore a rejection of the idea of a miracle through Kiritsugu. In contrast, Fate Prisma celebrates this aspect by rebutting Fate/Zero. If the Grail is limited by the means you can conceive of, then the ability to conceive of alternative means, in other words, imagination and creativity is the key the idea of the miracle. But because imagination potentially has no boundaries, save what the person imagining puts on him or herself through his or her life experiences, miracles still do exist. Or rather, the true miracle is the ability to dream, and to imagine.
In turn, it turns from the disempowering message of limitation that Fate/Zero presents, and inverts it into the empowering message of creativity that Fate Prisma rebuts with. And this is where Illya diverges from her father – she is empowered by the warm and stable upbringing she experienced, unlike her father. Or in other words, for someone to be subjected to Urobuchi’s limitations, he must be stripped of his ability to dream differently. But Illya is able to dream, and her convictions are sufficiently firm to repeatedly proclaim pride in that ability , again and again when it is needed. Prisma Illya is the potential and positive realization of the Grail System, not the limitation of the Grail System in Fate/Zero, or the moral implications of the Grail System in FSN.
And this is why I enjoy Fate Prisma greatly – it’s the very same concept behind the Fate Series, viewed through a different prism, literally. And it’s actually very intelligently crafted vis a vis the rest of the Nasuverse and Fate series, once you get beyond the fanservice to the actual plot, character development and themes of the series. It is still a Fate series, only it asks a very different question by daring to question Fate/Zero’s idea of the miracle.
Kuro’s arc was basically a gigantic finger to Fate/Zero’s definition of a miracle, and the underlying concept of the miracle that FSN takes for granted.
I like your perspective on the franchise and its various series. Thanks for sharing. ^_^