Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei!! Anime Review

I only started watching the first Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya series because I enjoyed the Fate/stay night franchise. As such, it has been fun watching a series that started as a parody of Cardcaptor Sakura and Fate/stay night become something that stands firmly on its own right.

The Story, With Spoilers!

For those unaware, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei!! picks up from where Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz! left off. This results in folks from another Earth coming and kidnapping Miyu. Ilya attempts to save Miyu, but is taken to the other Earth. There, Ilya has to reconnect with her battle allies who were also taken to this alternate Earth. Further, she and her allies have to rescue Miyu, where in the process, they discover the secret of the Class Cards. Ilya vows to save Miyu’s life as well as all of the people of this dying Earth, where Miyu originates from.

The Good: The Plot

One of the things that I liked about Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei!! is that the series doesn’t waste a lot of time getting back to the plot. There’s a little bit of lighthearted stuff with Ilya’s friends, but then they race back to the scene of the ending fight in Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz! I understand that in the manga, there’s no lighthearted break between titles. However, I understand why the anime put one in, just in case  wasn’t Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei!! approved.

Once evoked, the plot continues pretty hard and fast. There are moments of levity, of course, which I’ll get to in a moment. However, in terms of the story, which is the reason I’m watching Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei!!, things are rather interesting. Indeed, by shifting Ilya and her comrades from their world to Miyu’s world where the Class Cards originated, things become even more interesting.

The series is no longer about collecting these Heroic Spirit Class Cards. It is no longer about this mysterious eighth Class Card. It is about a dying world and a madman’s attempt to literally save it by sacrificing someone. Add to this Ilya’s determination to save both this world and her friends. Plus, there’s a healthy side of action to boot. All good stuff.

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei!! is also the darkest of all of the Prisma Illya titles. We see some horrific things happen to characters, some of it merely implied, which makes it worse in some ways. While being dark does not make a series good, in this case, the darkness does make things more interesting.

The Good: The Main Character’s Arc

One of the things I really appreciated about the series is the main character, Ilya. On one hand, she’s still the same young girl with the same fears, doubts, and other flaws that she had when Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya began. And yes, she can feel overwhelmed and cry at times. Perfectly understandable.

On the other hand, Ilya has come a long way as a character. She may be afraid, but she faces her fears. She may have doubts, but she’s going to try anyway. Ilya may cry, but she’s not going to let that hold her back. When the lives of her friends are at stake, she’s going to come up with a solution to save them if at all possible. While this may be nothing new in terms of storytelling, I enjoyed seeing Ilya go through this progression. Plus, it was also fun to see her surprise Kuro with her skills as Assassin.

I really appreciated that during the big, final fight of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei!!, Rin also reflected on what she’s gotten Ilya involved in. Back when the franchise started, Rin’s only concern was besting her rival, Luvia. Once Ruby had chosen Ilya as a replacement, Rin simply wanted to use Ilya for her ultimate goal. Now, Rin regrets what she’s done to Ilya by getting her into all of this mess. It was a nice touch on the part of the writers to have Rin acknowledge this.

The Good: Tanaka

Tanaka is one of the new characters introduced in Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei!!. She’s an airhead, has amnesia, and is impervious to the cold. She plays a perfect comic foil to cause Ilya to go nuts. As such, Tanaka is good for some nice laughs.

On the other hand, Tanaka is a mysterious character with a big secret. We still don’t know who she is when Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei!! ends, but we do know she’s a force to be reckoned with. That makes her quite interesting, especially since despite her amnesia, she remembers her sole purpose in life — defeating the most powerful mage family on her Earth.

The Good: Gil-kun

In the Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night group of series, I never liked the character of Gilgamesh. He was a punk and not very likeable, on purpose. However, when you take that arrogant, pompous, powerful character and put him into the body of a child, suddenly Gilgamesh isn’t so bad. Enter Gil-kun, as he was mostly addressed as in the series.

There’s just something funny about seeing a punk kid with so much power (but not his full power) who’s used to being a ruler of all he sees. He still has much of the same arrogant attitude of his adult self, which adds to the humor of seeing him. Don’t get me wrong, Gil-kun would irritate the crap out of me in real life, even more so since I don’t like being around kids. (No offense to those of you with kids.) But in a fantasy tale like this anime, he’s funny.

There is one different between Gil-kun and Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh wasn’t much about being nice to others. Gil-kun was nice and gracious to his allies. He provided them with an onsen on the roof of the abandoned school they used as a base. He even had ramen delivered for them to eat. And he gave them advice. I found that to be an interesting element of his kid form.

The Good: The Ainsworth

I have to admit that as villains, the Ainsworth were quite interesting. The Darius and Julian Ainsworth combination ended up being very interesting. Their agenda to save the world by sacrificing a single girl is interesting, even if wrong. For them, the ends justify the means, so whatever they have to do to save the world is OK. I appreciate that as villains, the Ainsworth weren’t just one dimensional people.

Also, the Ainsworth henchmen Angelica, using the Gilgamesh Archer Class Card, and Beatrice (using the Thor Berserker Class Card) were quite interesting. I loved how Angelica was simply methodical in her approach to things. Her loyalty to the Ainsworth family is not questioned. She wants Ilya and company to recognize that the Ainsworth way is the only way. This made her very interesting to me.

Beatrice wasn’t quite as interesting as Angelica was, but she still had her own interesting points. For starters, she introduced Thor as a Heroic (Divine) Spirit, making me wish that TYPE-MOON would introduce this Berserker character in other media. Then Beatrice also had a humorous side, thanks to her obsessive love of “Julian-sama.”

Finally, there was Erica (or Erika) Ainsworth, the cute little girl who seems like an innocent caught in a messed up family and thus doesn’t know right from wrong. For most of the series, I felt badly for her, more so when Miyu crushed her by rejecting her. She’s the most mysterious of the lot because after being rejected by Miyu, she gives herself to her “oniichan” to be used and emerges as a young teen girl instead of a girl in elementary school. Wild stuff. I’m looking forward to learning more about her.

Not So Good: Rin and Luvia

While Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei!! sees Illya’s battle support characters of Kuro, Bazett, Rin, and Luvia get brought over to Miyu’s Earth. Kuro and Bazett to a lesser extent do get to perform important roles in helping Ilya. However, Rina and Luvia are missing for about half of the anime. When they finally show up, they are mindless slaves of the Ainsworth and opponents for Ilya and company. OK, I can live with that as it provides another layer for Ilya to solve. It also provided for moments of levity.

However, once Rin and Luvia are returned to normal, they become dead weight. Rin gets to do a bit more than Luvia in that she’s attempting to heal this Earth’s Shirou, but that’s it. They are nothing more than spectators, occasionally making comments about what they see going on. I found this very disappointing. While Ilya certainly has to be the heroine, I would have expected mages like Rin and Luvia to do something more than they did, even without gems.

The Bad: The Ecchi

For some reason, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei!!, which takes its cue from the source manga, feels it just has to go into ecchi fanservice. I’m not talking about Angelica’s lewd Gilgamesh outfit, nor the more lewd Sapphire outfit that Ilya wore. I’m talking about scenes that are simply designed to titillate and illicit sexual arousal for guys.

Fortunately, most of the ecchi content was restricted to episodes three and four. As I mentioned, Angelica had her lewd outfit as did Ilya for a bit. I almost didn’t notice it, but while Luvia was under the control of the Ainsworth, for a time, her blouse around the chest area was reduced to a slender piece of cloth. 🙄 Whatever.

Conclusion

In the end, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 3rei!! is a really good continuation of the Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya franchise. Indeed, I think it is the best installment we’ve seen so far. I’m bummed that the next anime in this franchise will be a movie, but hopefully, I’ll get to watch it.