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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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? 🙄

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.

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.

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

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!