Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA ILLYA

I read alot of the manga. This is a moe comedy. Not ment to be a sereous Fate title. I hate how people are already giving it 3 stars cuz they are comparing it to the same thing. Please stop. If you are gonna compare it to anything, compare it to Carnival Phantasm. Watch this if you like magical girls, ecchi scenes, lolis and lots of moe. If you came to watch Fate/Zero, please leave and go educate yourself on the nasuverse before leaving reviews based on other anime.

The first thing you need to do to enjoy this is appreciate its nuance and be slightly pedophillic. Once you've read up on basic symbolism, metaphor, and structure, and can no longer be reasonably allowed near a middle school, you are ready to enjoy this anime. The start was a bit weak and a bit strong. It's obvious watch bait, look at this kawaii-uguu-imouto-desunya, but really comes together shortly after a bit of exposition in the bath scene. That there is the anime summed up in a neat package, a slightly cynical slightly comical slightly dark rendition of the Magical Girl genre with a healthy dose of "I swear she said she was at least 13 officer" fan service. Now that we're greeting our neighbors as required by law and being tazered on approach to school buses, some warnings are in order. Do not, and I repeat, do not expect this to be Madoka V2. It is comedy on top of its parody, and it does use its magical girl elements for their intended effects: Cute girls doing questionably lewd things with many high-quality sparkle effects to mimic the sprinkling of your various internal body fluids - be they tears, spittle of rage, sweat, or other things - as they hit your screen. Do not walk into this expecting to brag about it to your friends, unless you're currently watching it at the local ponce anonymous and all your friends are the weird uncle of the family. The second season is a disappointment, but the OVA is very watchable and contains one of the most wonderfully OVA-esque actions you could imagine a gaggle of little girls doing. I won't spoil it.

I had only been watching anime for around a week when I discovered to fate series, which I immediately became a huge fan of, and as I dove deeper into its universe i found this. I was hoping for some connection to fate/stay night or fate/zero but that's not what I got, besides some reoccurring characters and references. So basically, if you are looking for more fate/stay night or fate/zero style content, this is not the anime for you. If you don't like magical girls, loliesque stuff, or are offended by lesbian sexuality then i suggest you keep moving, but if you don't mind that and are just looking for something else to watch it contains a fair amount of humor and action and is not your typical magical girl anime. Therefore I personally recommend this anime especially if you like magical girls, loliesque stuff, serious yet comedic tones, quality action scenes and a bit of lesbian influence. Hope this is helpful especially coming from someone who has only been watching anime for a month. I wish you all the best -Varcaic

Oh man, after reading that other review, I had to have one to balance it out. This anime is clearly not for fans of the genre of the rest of the Fate franchise. If you can't tell that from the beginning ... uh ... why are you wasting your time watching the magical girl genre. Why is not a question that is answered in this series. The characters don't have clear motivations because why do they need them? Magic! Woo! This is even addressed. Illya has no reason for fighting other than it seemed fun, which caused problems for her and everyone else when she realised how serious and dangerous magic is. Um ... what else did the other review say? Blah, blah, blah, unoriginal and crap like that? Having magical girls in danger is original. Usually, they just gloss over that part, but the characters feel like they're really in danger all the time. Not everything can be Madoka Magica. But as a fan of the magical girl genre, I say who cares? If no anime is playing the genre straight, no one can subvert it, and I love this anime for everything it does to play into and make fun of its own genre clichés. I love the characters (with the exception of the "rich girl laugh", I hate that characterisation in any anime I see it). They all just go their own way and fumble through life, doing their own thing, and that's cool. Overall, I would recommend this anime to any fan of the genre. It's not meant to be in-line with the Fate Stay/Night universe, it's a silly little universe-bent spin-off, and is that a problem? No. And to close, the personalities of the magical wands are just brilliant. They really make a lot of scenes.

Ah, the Magical Girl anime - a staple almost as old as anime itself. Following in the prestigious footsteps of Sailor Moon, Cardcaptors, Madoka, and Sally the Witch (among others), Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya stars Illyasviel von Einsbern and Miyu Edelfelt as Magical Girls tasked with tracking down powerful magical artifacts known as 'class cards' which are threatening the stability of the world. For those familiar with the Fate universe, the class cards are based off the classes of the Heroic Spirits summoned during the grail wars in previous Fate series such as Zero, which I previously reviewed, and Stay Night. Many characters from previous shows make appearances, although often not quite in the same capacity. But, don't worry, it is altered enough that you won't feel lost if you have little experience with previous Fate series. Familiar Faces The characters, as mentioned above, are primarily variants of characters seen in other parts of the Fate continuum. Illya, herself, is seen briefly in Zero and has a larger role in Stay Night for example. Even though they are characters who have been seen before, in some capacity, the personalities and designs are distinct enough that this spinoff doesn't skimp on the character development. The first arc is only 10 episodes long, but you get a good understanding of the personalities of all six of the main characters - it even ventures into some strange territory to give you this understanding in a few episodes. You'll know what I mean when you get there... While they do a relatively good job, especially considering how short the season is, at developing the characters... they do a notably bad job at building history or establishing background. You get the brief bit at the start where you explore two of the main characters - Rin and Luvia - establishing the reason they're being sent to where the show takes place... but beyond that it's mostly character driven with very little story. One of the standard components every magical girl anime has is the character's advisor. This character is usually the one who gave them their powers in the first place, frequently having either a secretive and dubious nature. Prisma Illya is no different, with Sapphire and Ruby - two sentient magical wands - filling this role. What is really fun is that Ruby makes no qualms about being deceitful or manipulative... that isn't to say she's evil or anything, but she's certainly not lawful good and it's refreshing to see them be open about their scheming from the start. Battle-Hardened The common expectation set by most magical girl anime is that the heroines will have some special power and they'll use it to defeat monsters. Sailor Moon's Tiara/Scepter, Sakura's wand, etc. And they use it, but for the most part any action is relatively shallow and usually very one-sided. Either they win without trouble, or they lose without even fighting back and then magically unlock a new power, ally, or trick that they use to win without trouble. Not so much in Prisma Illya. The protagonists here actually have to fight... and the fighting is dynamic and engaging. In stead of problems being overcome by the convenient inclusion of some new power, they actually have to overcome the enemy strategically - most of the time. And the rare occasions where that isn't the case still have an explanation within the show. But most interesting is that, given the world it takes place in, magic is not exclusive to our magical girls. Two of the main characters, the previous bearers of Ruby and Sapphire, are actually magicians in their own right. One of the most incredible parts of the show is a brief scene where these two become magical girls again and you get to see what a magical girl in this world can be once they have mastered their powers. Shiiiinnyyyy.... Probably the most uniquely memorable aspect of this show are its visuals. And I'm not talking character models, although those are pretty good... but the effects and animations are amazing. They spared no detail in making the magic in this show look incredible. The magical effects are more than just one-off effects repeated every episode. Since Prisma Illya takes place in a world that already has magic, you get some pretty fantastic effects and a fair variety thereof. The combat animations, especially once they get past the 'throwing magic at each other' phase is detailed and intricate in a way I've never seen from the genre, and even surpass a lot of anime in more typical combat-oriented genres. A few of the fight scenes in this show are absolute marvels to behold. I also particularly enjoyed the corrupt Heroic Spirits. They're really interesting to look at just on their own, so even if you don't have the exposure to the previous Fate shows you're in for a treat. If you do have that experience, though... you'll be in for a real treat seeing the way the various Heroic Spirits are represented when corrupt. Final Thoughts When watching Prisma Illya, we were impressed by the way the show overcomes the common stereotypes and tropes in Magical Girl anime. Beyond even just the ones mentioned above, the show even acknowledge and took humour at some of the unspoken things. Things like the 'censored nudity' that most of these shows feature... typically they'll make no note of it, occasionally you'll see a brief mention of surprise at the costume by the heroine. Illya gets angry at Ruby and makes a snarky comment about being outside in the nude when it first happens and is very shy and embarrassed about the transformation for the first few times, even going and hiding in a bathroom to get transformed at one point. Overall I think this is the most well-made Magical Girl show I've seen. It does a great job of overcoming the genres general weaknesses, while also capitalizing on its strengths and it takes it into a new direction that I think has been neglected. It's not perfect, and we'll see how they can manage to keep it going, but the first arc has set a great base without feeling incomplete. The above was a review made for the first season of Fate/Kaleid liner Prisma Illya that I wrote for my website. If you're interested in more of my work, you can check out my website at http://www.shadowedblade.net/