Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files 00 (Interesting Start)

Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files {Rail Zeppelin} Grace note 00
Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files 00
ロード・エルメロイⅡ世の事件簿 -魔眼蒐集列車 Grace note- 00

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Lord El-Melloi II (Waver Velvet) gives a lecture at the Clock Tower in London, which is audited by other department heads. Afterwards, he’s in a meeting with them and more, including Reines El-Melloi Archisorte, the true head of the El-Melloi family. There, it is clear that Waver is not highly regarded by the other instructors and staff of the school.

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

Waver heads to his office where his young, female assistant, Gray, awaits him. He’s displeased that she’s allowed a stray, black cat into the place. Further, he’s angry from the meeting and the politics of the Clock Tower. As such, he apparently puts a curse on some of the others. Waver and Gray head out, where they run into a couple of his students, Flat and Svin. Waver receives minor injuries as a result, which he attributes to a counter-curse.

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

The next day, Waver and Gray head into town, where they find the body of the dying stray cat, who had been hit by a car. They bring the cat back to his office, but despite his efforts to save the cat, it dies. He and Gray bury it in the courtyard. Waver laments his weakness at Magecraft, which could have saved the cat and more. Gray hears the dead cat, as does Waver. Waver has Flat and Svin summoned to perform a revealing ritual. There, they discover the car that hit the cat and cast the curse on Waver.

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

The four get into Waver’s car to chase down the perpetrator. Svin uses Magecraft to exit the car and pursue on foot. Sven’s beast power forces the car off the road, where Flat’s power causes it to stop. Back in his office, Waver and Gray discuss the situation. Waver believes someone unknown hired the assassin.

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

Thoughts/Review

And so I come to another Fate title, this time being Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files. And an interesting prelude it is.

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

Waver-kun

Having watched Fate/Zero, I was glad to see that Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files 00 give some flashbacks and nods to that series. It has been ages (2012) since I watched Fate/Zero (review link here). So I appreciated Waver’s flashbacks to that final battle when Rider Iskandar fought Archer Gilgamesh. And I loved the moment at the end of the episode when Waver wore the same kind of t-shirt that Iskandar wore.

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

However, I can’t help but wonder if those who’ve not watched Fate/Zero might not be confused and put off by these flashbacks. I could see that being somewhat confusing.

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

I found it interesting that Waver is sometimes addressed as Great Big Ben London Star-sensei. This was said in English, so naturally, the official subs have to scrub the teacher/master element of “sensei” out in favor of “sir”. I’ll rant about that in a bit.

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

Gray

I’m not sure what Gray is. Apparently, she is Waver’s assistant. However, he has expressed a dislike of seeing her face, which I found odd. It was odder still that Gray was okay with this.

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

Initially, I thought Gray might be a Servant of some kind. Since she didn’t do any attacking during the confrontation with the assassin that put the curse on Waver, I don’t think that’s the case. But she has to be special somehow, otherwise why would such a young girl be Waver’s assistant? And why would she keep a hood up, other than to disguise her appearance somehow.

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

Also, what is that weird, talking thing she has in the small birdcage?

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

Political Intrigue

While the political intrigue of the Clock Tower could be interesting, I’m not sure that’s a show I want to see. However, the title Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files does imply that Waver is going to be working cases of some kind, most likely supernatural in nature. As such, the politics we saw in Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files 00 may simply be an element of the show, not the entirety of it.

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

Official Subtitles

Not that honorifics were used much, but what few there were naturally had to be stripped from Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files 00. After all, we wouldn’t want filthy <censored> in our glorious English text, would we? 🙄

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

What irritated me was was how “Great Big Ben London Star-sensei” in the Japanese became “Sir Great Big Ben London Star”. Really? How does that compute? What brilliantly brilliant thought, that I’m clearly too much of a loser to understand the brilliance of the correctness of this choice, is this? How does giving an English Knight honorific equate to a Japanese teacher/master honorific? Obviously, I would have left “sensei” in the subtitles.

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

But barring that, why wouldn’t “Great Big Ben London Star Instructor” have been a better choice? That’s accurate but readable, not some bloody localization rewrite ’cause clearly, rewriting Japanese filth into something Western is sheer genius that I’m to dim to understand.

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

And yet the official subtitles left “Gray-tan” in them. Go figure.

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files 00 was an interesting prelude to the series. Hopefully, we learn who Reines El-Melloi Archisorte is and her actual relationship to Waver, who merely took over the Lord El-Melloi II title in the lore. She reminds me of Eva from Negima!

Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files 00

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4 Responses to “Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files 00 (Interesting Start)”

  1. Dave says:

    I’ve watched the series. I haven’t watched Fate/Zero but am familiar with the basic story so I had no problem following the plot. They really don’t explain too much about Grey so if you want the whole story you’ll either have to read the light novel or do what I did and pay a visit to TV Tropes. Overall I enjoyed the series, whoever wrote the plot must be a Sherlock Holmes fan because that’s pretty much the formula for the story line.

  2. OverMaster says:

    To put it simply, there’s no reason why Japanese honorifics should be left in dialogue that is supposed to be spoken by English native speakers. If this were dialogue between Japanese characters, sure, but in-universe Waver, Gray and the others aren’t supposed to be addressing each other with Japanese honorifics, that’s not their culture and the story shouldn’t strictly have to reflect a manner of speech they clearly aren’t using within the context of the story.

    That’s not racist against the Japanese, any more than the Japanese were racist in the first place for placing Japanese speech patterns in the mouths of all foreign Western characters. A case can be made for the adaptation not handling this well, and the ‘-tan’ being left in is indeed a sign of that, but the premise itself is sound enough, I think.

    • AstroNerdBoy says:

      I already knew that Japanese honorifics wouldn’t be left in. But the characters may be Western, but they all act Japanese for the most part. But I digress.

      I was already in a foul mood over some other issue, and alas, that spilled over into my thoughts here. But I still don’t like “Sir” being the translation for “Sensei” in Great Big Ben London Star-sensei. I personally think Great Big Ben London Star Instructor would have been the correct way to go since it reflects Waver’s status as a teacher and a good one at that.

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