Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA 2wei Herz! Episode 04 REVIEW
Fate/kaleid liner プリズマ☆イリヤ 2wei Herz!
Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz! – 04

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Ilya, Kuro, and Miyu assist Rin and Luvia at the construction site for their eventual attempt to snag the 8th card. As payment, Luvia gives Ilya tickets to the Gakugaku Animal Land (Gakugaku Doubutsu Land) theme park, which as a large amount of Lion-kun mascots. Ilya, Miyu, Kuro, Tatsuko, Mimi, Suzuka, and Nanaki come, chaperoned by Iri. Tatsuko become quite manic about the situation and has to be restrained. Miyu experiences a theme park for the first time and enjoys herself a lot. During the group’s first break, Iri lets out how she and Kiritsugu didn’t get to have a wedding ceremony. During the Lion-kun parade, they get separated from Iri, so they head to the lost child area, only to find Caren-sensei there, not for work, but for sadistic enjoyment.

Kuro gets a call from Iri, who is being forced to try on wedding dresses. Suzuka and the others encourage her to keep going, much to Kuro’s and Ilya’s chagrin, citing that their school teacher can chaperon. With that settled, Caren-sensei drafts a very strong Lion-kun mascot to assist and the girls are off to the various other rides and attractions at the theme park. During their next break, Ilya discovers the charm on her bracelet is missing, so the girls go looking. Miyu uses magic, but is unsuccessful in locating it. That evening, they make one more attempt, where Caren-sensei gives Miyu advice that helps her find it. Iri rejoins the group, but when she’s pointed to Caren-sensei, Iri gets a serious look for a moment, but then politely chats with Caren. Afterward, Caren gets in her car with Lion-kun, who’s actually Bazett.

Thoughts/Review:

When you get rid of the excessive, lolicon fanservice, the Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya series can actually be quite funny at times, as this episode proved.

The only real plot stuff was at the beginning, with Ilya and company doing whatever prep work for getting that 8th card. They sure are taking their time to get to that plot, not that I mind though.

The manic Tatsuko came off pretty funny to me, more so because Nanaki had the foresight to make a rope leash around Tatsuko’s waste to keep her from just running off. Tatsuko is a character that for me, has the potential to become annoying. However, she’s being deftly handled thus far, keeping her funny and manic without getting on my nerves.

Miyu’s first ride on the roller coaster was hilarious, more so because she was paired up with the manic Tatsuko. Miyu’s calmness and lack of understanding why Tatsuko was even more manic than normal were soon changed when that coaster did its drop.

I note with amusement that SILVER LINK saw an opportunity to do some serious budget cost savings by only animating the initial part of the roller coaster, then having the girls in still shots for every other ride and attraction in the park.

Speaking of rides, these pigs look so wrong, yet so funny.

Caren’s unexpected appearance at the lost children section was quite funny, especially since her motivation is so twisted.

Equally as funny was Bazett’s working there as a Lion-kun mascot, all because Caren set it up. I’ll be honest that I didn’t expect Bazett to be the strong Lion-kun character, but I should have done so, especially since I was sure the person in the costume would be a character we knew.

Iri was fun on two levels. First, there was her typical airhead fun, whereby we get a tiny bit of character work on her (although married to Kiritsugu, she never had a ceremony). Plus, it was lovely seeing her in that wedding dress.

The second bit of fun was her getting serious for a moment, then attempting to act as her normal airhead self when confronting Caren. Although the sinister, incidental music helped set the tone, never before have words soft spoken with an airheaded smile come off with such a serious, “Don’t muck with me and my children” feel.

Clearly, Iri and Caren know each other, and Caren obviously knows about Ilya, Miyu, and Kuro with their magic girl thing.  However, I wonder if there is a greater history between and Iri in this universe.

In the end, this was a rather fun, humorous, and interesting episode.