「Your True Enemy」 (Kimi no Hontou no Teki)
“Your True Enemy”

Storming the castle straight away rarely works out well.

Gate of Babylon vs Faker

I was impressed with how they balanced the Gil-kun vs Angelica battle. With the same skillset, it seems like it should have been a rout either way—either to Gil-kun, because he was the real one, or to Angelica, because she had more of the armory. The former ended up being more of the case, and it was awesome when Gil-kun took back Enkidu—his old friend. But though Angelia was on the backfoot, she whipped out her other cards, and though she only got to use ’em a bit, that’s some serious foreshadowing for later battles. Seeing Gate of Babylon go against Gate of Babylon was cool. Seeing something we’ve never seen before next time will be even better.

Illya & Tanaka’s Resilience vs Beako

Turns out Tanaka-san is unbreakable. Her clothes aren’t, but no matter what Beako does to her, she will not die. Which is really useful from a storytelling perspective, because not only is she mysterious, she functions as a sort of built in deus ex machina to make sure the other protagonists survive without nerfing the enemies. I’m also hyped to see what she can do if/when she goes from pure tank to brawler.

But damn, doesn’t it seem like KugiRie is having a lot of fun as Beatrice? Half cutsey nonsense, half hyper-violent killer, she seems like a fun character to voice. And her Berserker is Thor? Damn, dude. Talk about a worthy adversary. Though when she was getting ready to obliterate Illya and crew at the end there, I was waiting for Bazett to jump out with Fragarach and one-hit kill the mad loli. I guess sniper Kuro to the rescue will have to suffice. Reunion time, yay!

tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – Gil-kun takes back some of his treasures, while Illya goes Caster but still loses to Beako’s Thor #prisma_illya s4e3

Random thoughts:

  • The top floor of the highest tower. In case you weren’t getting enough princess vibes from Miyu’s situation.
  • Thoughts on Ruby’s appearance: Is it a bit bullshit that she appears in a random weapon Illya picks up in a pile of thousands? Yeah. But, eh, whatever. Ruby and Sapphire are a good mix of hard and soft magic, so I can believe the occasional bullshit soft magic moment from them. This is a magical girl show, after all.
  • Caster Illya was so cool! I wish it had worked better. And that she had whipped out as many nuke holes as Angelica did Gate of Babylon portals. Full power, total destruction!
  • Even Alternate|Shirou’s card gets no respect. Trash card? How rude! I hope Kuro uses it to beat your asses.

My first novel, Wage Slave Rebellion, is available now. (More info—now in paperback.) ***BOOK TWO IS OUT NEXT WEEK*** Sign up for my email list for a FREE sequel novella. Over at stephenwgee.com, the last four posts: I love sales jobs, Good realism is character realism, Dying idols, and Frictionless routines.

 

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31 Comments

  1. You can’t separate magical girls from their magical sticks.
    In true mahou shoujo fashion – Illya and Ruby, by sheer force of will, return to each others’ side. After all, asspulls are the lifeblood of a magical girl and miracles are their spice.

    That being said, they cut some Illya monologues in the episode which obviously added a bit more flavor and heft to the fights. A bit of a bummer but you can’t put in 1-2 minute lines of characterization that screws with the pacing of the action. It’s just the nature of the medium and Silver Link has been doing a commendable effort so far with the adaptation.

    Oh and the new soundtrack has been great so far.

    Orange
    1. Yep that’s true. I call it Dex ex Machina only the first time after that you should know it’s genre convention and expect it.

      I have seen the Manga page for this and it explains better as both were searching for each other Illya’s nature allows her to just know where Ruby is without consciously realizing it and Ruby’s nature allowed her to end up stored in the room although trapped.

      Yep Stilts it’s a soft magic magical girl show, explanation is magical girls have limited reality warping powers, a connection subconscious to what destiny and fate are up to and a huge luck pool. In Fate terms Illya is linked to the Grail so does actually have some wish magic power things going.

      Mentioned in final battle last season that magical girl powers also give the ability to make speeches by slowing time down for everything else. At least magical girls have the wish like powers to explain how they do that, don’t know how other characters in other genre do it.

      A good episode I liked it and great fights.

      Angelica’s bikini top is held on by glue or magic, I love the look but in reality tops can’t stay on that way for very long. Don’t have a problem with the half armor look as Gil rocks the same half or more off bare chest look at times too. I have said before full armor slows you down, the best use of full armor is in formations of troops where you can’t dodge mass arrow fire or unexpected attacks in a melee. Also full plate works great against inferior weapons and tactics, in example of a painting of a Aztec Warrior fighting a knight in full plate in Mexico city, the Aztec’s obsidian weapon can not even do the joints very well. But in one to one combat armor is trade off of speed vs protection so a partial armor set can make sense as you get some areas you can expose but more speed and flexibility by not covering areas.

      RedRocket
  2. https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya%203rei%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2015.jpg
    Hiroyama likes his wordplays like Nasu and most of Japanese writers owing to the uniqueness of the language. In the original text in this part of the manga, the kanji used is “chain” but the furigana on top of it is “friend”, giving a double meaning to what Gil said here out of anger.

    https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya%203rei%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2017.jpg
    That string right above the cardholder in Illya’s thigh is suppose to be the string for her panties. It’s much clearer in the manga but it wasn’t made that clear here. Though does this mean Medea wears strings? Lewd.

    belatkuro
  3. oh that was just glorious…
    femThor vs indestructible Tanaka-chan (though her clothes are not…)
    femGil vs shotaGil…
    and then the real power behind those 2 girls, just as a voice woth courteous evil overlord vibe…

    ewok40k
  4. Beatrice is exactly the kind of character I hate. In a show like Fate/kaleid it’s a character I love to hate, and I’m ready to see her get her well-deserved beat-down.

    I just wish this type of character wouldn’t show up in more serious shows like Gangsta.

    Puffles
  5. Thought the same. Rie Kugimiya is really enjoying herself voicing that crazy character, huh? 🙂
    Considering how indestructible Tanaka seems to be, I was thinking about a possible manifestation of Saber’s scabbard, Avalon.

    boingman
    1. My personal theory is that she’s a Counter Guardian sent specifically to defeat Darius. Which is why she can’t be harmed by lesser foes since her power level is set at that of their boss. It seems that I’m not the only one who thinks that, too.

      Note: I have read the manga, but I stopped for over a year (I think) due to slow scans and have yet to pick it back up. I don’t think any of this counts as spoiler-worthy…

      Hanabira.Kage
      1. My personal theory is that Tanaka is akin to Gil-kun, an incarnation of a heroic spirit, one whose legend speaks of his/her indestructibility. Something like Achilles’ invulnerability to everything but his heel.

        Yellow Mellow
    2. I highly, highly doubt this is the case, but it would be cool nonetheless. If she was using Hercules 12 Labors and when they realize it, she’s down to her last labor. Although in saying that, she hasn’t demonstrated any other abilities commonly associated with the myth of Hercules so it’s unlikely – impossible.

      Goodwill Wright
  6. I can see either two possibilities allowing Illya to so easily summon Ruby.

    1. Luck is an actual stat in the Nasuverse, with real effects. We’ve seen how ridiculously lucky Illya can get when her life is at risk – recall Illya evading all of Kuro’s assassination attempts at the beginning of 2wei. Finding Ruby the first time round is a result of the very high Luck Illya possesses as a Lesser Grail.

    2. As a Lesser Grail, the Prisma-series allows Illya to grant her own wishes – witness Kuro. It is quite plausible, in her desperate charge against Beatrice with a random Mystic Code; that Illya wished Ruby back into her own hands across worlds, so as to be able to fight, using her innate wish-granting functions.

    Andmeuths
  7. https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya%203rei%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2017.jpg

    First and foremost, I’m probably the only die-hard fate fan that actually prefers Caster over everyone in the FSN Holy Grail Wars. Seeing a loli Ilya version of her was a feast for the eyes.

    https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya%203rei%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2011.jpg

    Second and most importantly, FOR REALZ?! Is this really TsundeRei’s voice? God damn that is so…… HOT! I’ve always been a Rei Kugumiya fan myself (she’s the only voice actor i know by name) but I did not realize that she was voicing Beatrice (my favorite antagonist in Drei). I just fell in love all over again!

    Ginobi47
  8. Velvet Scarlantina
  9. But damn, doesn’t it seem like KugiRie is having a lot of fun as Beatrice?

    Why shouldn’t she?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_1QuqO4dRo

    Umineko Alumni should get that hilarious connection. ^^

    Umineko’s major spoiler:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    LGrey

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