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「世界の片隅で君の名を」 (Sekai no Katasumi de Kimi no na o)
“Calling Your Name From a Corner of the World”
I think you and I are destined to do this forever.
The Price of Power
This episode reminds me of a limitation, or perhaps a potential pitfall, of episodic blogging. It’s something I need to be reminded of occasionally, lest I make the mistake I did last week. Were I not blogging this show, when Illya went into superpowered double-stick mode last week, I would have said, “Cool! I can’t wait to watch the last battle.” I wouldn’t have thought about it too much. But since I was blogging the episode, I thought about it more, and found it odd that one person using both sticks would be inherently more powerful, plot considerations aside.
That was before Ruby & Sapphire mentioned the price. And I liked it, and it worked! Having them trick other parts of Illya’s body into acting like fake magic circuits not only ties into Fate-style magic, but it accounts for the extra power she had—and why it’s not something she’ll want to do often. And come on, the battle itself was a treat to watch. It’s something that would have been an utter flash-and-bang mess, had it not been for that countdown, that axe hanging over our necks—“Finish it quickly, Illya!” That’s what I spent the entire fight saying. It added tension, a tension which lasted the rest of the episode.
Which—am I the only one that kept waiting to see if the price Illya paid would be a permanent one? Manga readers might know (reminder: Spoiler tags muthafukkahs, do you use ’em!? You should), but I kept waiting for a incurable cough of death (trope!) that would signal that the damage was permanent. Which I hope it isn’t! But I kind of hope there’s a cleanly noticeable reason why she shouldn’t just dual wield sticks all the time. Which is basically me wishing harm on a little girl, but she’s fictional and we all know I’m a bastard anyway, so par for the course.
And The Tears Came Crashing Down
“I pray you find a world where you won’t have to suffer any longer.”
“I pray that you meet kind people.”
“I pray you find friends you can laugh with.”
“I pray you find a warm, small … share of happiness.”
No, that’s not what got me, though it teed up the shot. (Apparently we’re doing golf metaphors today.) It was Luvia. While Rin and Luvia fighting all the time almost never gets old, I like the complexity injected into Luvia’s character when she shows how much she cares for her little sister. Miyu needs friends, and a place to belong, and as much as Illya gave that to her, so did Luvia. They both never asked for Miyu’s secret, but where Illya did it out of fear, Luvia did it out of understand. I love the gentle, kind Luvia-oneesama. She’s the best *sniffles*
the battle and the immediate aftermath just go to show you: Sometimes you can forget that Prisma Illya is a Fate series to its core. Then it reminds you. When it gets serious, lives (and souls) are on the line.
Happy Happy Lovey Lovey … For Now
Even though I spent the whole time worrying about whether Illya was dying, the sleeping kiss was great, Shirou’s reaction was hilarious, and all the scenes with their friends were that special kind of fuwa-fuwa. While I love the mainline Fate stories, I feel like it’s the mix of the hyper-tense explosive battles with these goofy and happy scenes that makes Prisma Illya more my speed. It’s the reward for all the struggle, renumeration for all the pain.
Mention was made of how much softer Miyu has become. Which I noticed, and appreciated. After accepting once again her fate to slide into oblivion, only to be saved, it’s clear that she treasures her everyday life with her friends. But it was actually Kuro whose softening I noticed first. From her earlier exhortation of Rin, Luvia, and Bazett to not stop Illya, but to help her (which was the right choice—you don’t stop someone when they’ve made a conscious decision of that level), to the end when she calmly said, “Don’t decide it’ll be a bother before you even talk to her,” Kuro has softened a lot since her introduction, and even from the tease she’s been lately.
The trick is, how long will this happiness last? Looks like we’ll get to find out, because Drei confirmed, bitches! (Final impressions below.)
tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – Illya’s final form isn’t without its costs, but she pulls it out. Miyu is saved, as is the day—for now #prismaillya s3e10 END
Random thoughts:
- Suddenly, Gainax. My Ea is the Ea that pierces the universe?
- “Lies and bluffs are your forte, aren’t they?” Rin best girl still! (For Stilts)
Epilogue:
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Announcement
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Final Impressions
Zwei Herz! is inarguably the weakest season of Prisma Illya so far. Which isn’t the kiss of death that it would be for other series, because the first two seasons was awesome. I get the impression that I have a better opinion of Zwei Herz! than most people, so let me break down why I thought it was still a fairly good season, even if it wasn’t as amazing as the first two.
The five purely comedy episodes we had before the plot kicked up and eventually got to the battle in episode seven are what most complain about. And I agree—it totally killed the pacing when the only ones that were really in the source were episodes one, two, and six onwards. (Three as well, though it was apparently an out-of-order side chapter originally released in the Drei manga.) Which would have helped the pacing a lot, even if it would have resulted in a seven-episode season.
I don’t discount that. And yet, I enjoyed episode three a lot. Fujoushi Mimi was hilarious, even if it didn’t quite reach the heights that episode one and two did (they being probably the funniest episodes I’ve seen of ANY show in a while). And I really enjoyed episode five, even though it was apparently all anime original! I would be sad to not have seen that, even though it contributed to the fubar’d pacing. Only episode four was, to me, an utter waste of time. To a person who hasn’t seen the season yet, I would tell them, “Bazett works at a theme park for a while, and she gets a lion sit she sleeps in,” after which they can safely skip episode four. In my opinion. I do realize that some people liked episode four, which is perfectly fine.
A big reason the first half of the season got problematic is because it was pure comedy for too long, and comedy is the most subjective type of story type. It’s refreshingly binary—either you laugh or you don’t. I listen to a lot of comedians talk about comedy (Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee is great for this, as is Talking Funny), and they all talk about the intense feedback loop—you’re judged every 10 seconds, by every joke. And that binary, immediate feedback doesn’t let us kick in the justifications that we use to say why dramas—and most stories are dramas, even if they’re not overly serious—are still good even if they don’t truly touch us somewhere deep inside. But you can’t explain a joke and have it be funny. Which means that if it’s funny, it’s funny—and if it’s not, it’s not.
What Prisma Illya has long excelled at is being both funny and dramatic. If you liked both, it was awesome, but if you didn’t much care for the comedy, or if it was only all right, then the drama (and action) was thee for you still. This season go so weighted toward the comedy early on that those who didn’t enjoy the comedy as much as someone like me did, didn’t enjoy the season all that much. Whereas I love nearly all of Prisma Illya’s comedy, so I enjoyed most of those early episodes, even if I did get impatient for them to get back to the plot.
Aside from that, it’s the ice cream cake conundrum: Some ice cream cake is good, but if you eat too much ice cream cake, it’ll make you sick. (Name that reference, people.) When the balance was lost, the season was diminished. Though I lay fault for that firmly at the feet of the suits and the production houses. I have a feeling the staff at Silver Link knew that they had too many episodes, but ten-episode seasons are already rare enough (I can’t think of any other than Prisma Illya, though I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some)—a seven or eight-episode series? I can’t imagine someone bothering to greenlight that. Which they should have, to be honest, even if I would have missed not having some of those episodes. But it’s probably hardly worth promoting a series when you can only get a couple of DVD/BD releases out of it. So they stuck with ten episodes.
The final four episodes of the season were good. Not perfect, again—there was more odd pacing in episode eight. But the battle in episode seven was amazing, and the final battle in nine and ten was good stuff. And Kid Gil! What a fun character. I approve of this shouta encroaching on this yuri loli world. He’s just that much fun.
In the final calculus, I still enjoyed Zwei Herz, and I’ve blogged much worse adaptations. I was worried that it would prevent us from getting a greenlight for the broadly-acclaimed Drei manga, but luck is with us. To quote a madman, “I think you and I are destined to do this forever.” Until Illya and friends return again, thank you for reading.
My first novel, Wage Slave Rebellion, is available now. (More info—now in paperback!) Sign up for my email list for a FREE sequel novella. Over at stephenwgee.com, the last four posts: My morning routine, True Ends, Rejection, the secret place, & fundamentals, and What are your two skills?
Well, we are bound to disagree, even when we shine same light on the thing we love. I found Herz! to be the better of the 2wei series’. I felt that the alchemy of comedy and drama mixed with adaption and original content more off than on. A mixed bag of nuts and bolts at times, but still very watchable, and always enjoyable. It was in Herz! that they improved the formula and worked out all the bugs (and yeah, like you episode four was a speed bump, but I can look back on it with more charity now).
As far as comedy is considered, I don’t think they were going for straight up gags and jokes. Those were there as exclamation points (and yeah, that 50/50 split is there) but I found the underlying warm humor to be the best thing they could build. It was natural most of the time; where it felt a touch forced in 2wei.
As for why we have ten episode slates and the original content that goes with it. Money, as Sir Olivier would say. For the Money, my dear boy. 2wei as one entity nets you fewer discs at 12-14 episodes than two strokes at 20 episodes. It’s how I would run a business. As a fan I would complain of money-grubbing, but I felt the original content, especially in Herz!, was well worth my time.
But, the journey is over for now. I’m surprised you didn’t mention the Elephant in the Room ending…
I didn’t comment on the ending ’cause there wasn’t anything to say. Drei is coming, manga readers already know what’s up, I have no idea, and I’m content to wait.
I never got the forced part in any of these season, tbh. Though as Chris Rock would say, there’s always got to be a joke or a gag underneath whatever gimmick you have. It just doesn’t work without that.
I found the fan service in this season of the series to be creepy (Elementary schooler fan service: no thanx).
Massive change from the manga with how this series ended, though I felt it was for the better. Those two who appeared at the very end actually appeared immediately following the Gil fight to stir things up, and the manga zwei series ended with no closure. Adding the scene where the Illya, Miyu, and Kuro acting as normal girls is heartwarming as ever, and also kudos to the studio for emphasizing the sisterly bond between Luvia and Miyu. Everything past the Gil fight until the credits brought some closure despite the cliff-hanger at the end. I was actually wondering if they would leave out the cliffhanger at the end just in case another season was not green-lit, and that it would likely need at least an addition 1-2 seasons on top of that to finish off the Drei arc (which is still ongoing in the manga).
The only major blip I felt this whole series was the awkward break in the eighth episode that did not really serve any purpose apart from Kuro X Illya fanservice. Episode 4 was lackluster by Fate/Illya standards, but was still decent. Overall, another solid series in what has been an amazing season of anime sequels (this, Working!!!, Non Non Biyori). Would be interesting to see if they kick off Drei with one-shots from the manga, or go straight into the extremely long story arc.
The change in my opinion was massively bad. I don’t care how much closure it gives it screws up the point of the turn from happy to normal type moon grimdark. Let alone screws up how the two at the end even get to illy as world. Show Spoiler ▼
2wei isn’t supposed to have closure as it is the happiness before the fall from grace
Stilts edit: Mark your spoilers, please, even if they’re not huge ones.
Don’t want to give the spoilers away from the manga so I won’t dive into details, but I always felt that Drei lacked a lot in the relationship dynamics that I liked from the first two seasons, especially moments between Illya and Miyu (for obvious reasons for manga readers). I felt the dynamics between everyone was what makes this series work, which was why I enjoyed seeing it again before Drei rolls around. Probably also helps that I had actually predicted they would go this route a few weeks back, and they executed it better than I thought they would.
I do have the same thoughts when it came to the introduction of the two at the end, but I’ll leave judgement until I see how the Drei anime series deals with it. I actually thought it might have been better to leave out everything after the credits, or at least leave out the part of the crater vanishing.To be fair, it was an ending for the anime viewers; afterall, ending the way the manga did would be torturous, especially if we have to wait a year to find out what happens next.
Interesting that they tweaked the ending. I think it’s much more kind not to end on a HUGE cliffhanger when we probably have at least a year to wait, as opposed to the manga when I assume it wasn’t long between Zwei’s end and Drei’s start.
stilts you need to see the manga’s ending it is so drastically different that it mind as well be an alternate universe at this point. I am not even sure how they will fix this (set the story and tone back to how they should be). it is the reason that back during one of your previous episode reviews when you mentioned that they should have put filler at the end of the season i held my tong as i was trying to keep from hinting at the cliff hanger. they changed the ending to add more happy filler at the start of 3rei problem is starting at the point where Ea and clashes with illya’s beam aka here http://bato.to/read/_/135338/fatekaleid-liner-prisma%E2%98%86illya-2wei_ch27_by_suimasen-scans/17 the series takes a turn in tone.
tdlr. stilts start on that page of the manga and finish the chapter to get the proper ending you deserve to know what they did.
Thanks for the suggestion, but I’ll pass for now. If I want to check it out, I’ll do so after the next season begins. I see no reason for me to expose myself to a huge cliffhanger at the moment. I’m patient. I can wait.
https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya%20Zwei%20Herz%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2033.jpg
Shirou wants a taste of canonical biggest titties
https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya%20Zwei%20Herz%20-%2010%20-%2051.jpg
Female Gilgamesh? WUT? O__O (No one say anything. Spoil it for me and I’ll force my imaginary hat down your throat.)
That aside, and all in all it was pretty much what I was expecting. Nothing spectacular, though I did appreciate how Illya didn’t just some magical power-up with no consequences just ’cause.
Still, a good ending all things considered. Seeya all next year for Drei. 😀
Its just a hot girl using a Card Install on the Archer (Gilgamesh) Card. No, that is not a spoiler, you actually see it happen.
and we are allowed to guess, what Card the right Girl can be. But i already think that is a female version of Berserker, because of her Horns on the Skirt. You know, Warriors of the North had mostly Horn for Display. So i guess, it can be Berserker install, too
@Depp: All I can say is Show Spoiler ▼
Stilts edit: All you can say is SPOILER TAG! A light spoiler, more of a hint (in case anime-only viewers want to click), but a spoiler nonetheless.
Looks like not reading the manga really helps enjoying this show. Not that they are too much off the manga most of the time large portions are direct copies when I back check.
I loved this episode thought the climax followed up by character development was great.
I liked that Kuro, Illya and Miyu have a mild complex from things involving cards. Of course spirits being cards always made me think should there not be 52 of them or even better 78 for a Tarot deck? Never knew that Tarot decks are actually for playing many types of card games till I looked it up now.
Illya sure is the toughest Guild War competitor now that she blew Gil into pink mist though the insanely powerful EA, well yellow bubbles in this case. He He magical girls rule FATE. Show Spoiler ▼
Because this episodes second half was anime original instead of going grim and dark cliffhanger many manga readers think show is ruined. I might agree only if new season could start in two weeks but would need to see or read next season to decide if not having a break here a good idea. Even if the new opponents showing up almost instantly after the rift is created is sort of dumb unless they explain how two people can be ready 24 /7 for a event they can’t predict happening and get to the right place that fast. Referring to the two shown after the credits in the manga they show up right after Illya wins. Even if the new opponents showing up almost instantly after the rift is created is sort of dumb unless they explain how two people can be ready 24 /7 for a event they can’t predict happening and get to the right place that fast. Referring to the two shown after the credits in the manga they show up right after Illya wins.
I can honestly say that they have completely butchered the end of the manga. The pacing there was really tight with Illya always on the ropes – the bad luck never seemed to end, with new (bad) developments following one another. Here they have tea parties during a battle, and the Final Boss Fight lasted maybe five minutes. But I digress.
What bothers me is that the anime completely changes what happened. In the manga Iri never sees what happened to Illya – in fact, the closing scene is her screaming when she realizes that Illya is missing. This leads to an even bigger issue however – the fate of Gil. What the hell happened to Gil? He either died or was lying in the crater, next to Bazett, Iri and Caren. If he’s alive, then there is no way they wouldn’t have spotted him.
The issue with that is… Show Spoiler ▼
There’s a ton of smaller issues (such as the anime never explaining why Ea got beat) but I’ll just leave ’em be. I’m not sure if I’m annoyed or disappointed – after the previous two seasons, I had higher expectations than this.
I’m a very sad panda right now.
damn you for teasing us with next season and having to wait…
damn you for that wake-up kiss and Shirou’s reaction
damn you for Luvia’s quiet, accepting sisterly love tugging at my heart
Is there enough material for a Season 3 as advertised?
While the manga is still ongoing, it already has more chapters that the entire 2wei manga series, so yeah there is currently enough for around 16 episodes without having to resort to fillers.
good to read
Rewetting the fight is great you catch neat details you might have missed. Me I missed Illya catching a lot of swords with her stars, blocking a hand with three of them, how Illya is battle planing two things at once.
Illya is basically using light hawk wings at least symbolically now that I know that her power at this level ties directly into the root of power, in fate terms she is using the 2nd Magic. I’m think all the little stars like our two sticks in the mix probably were linking to other sticks or power sources in the many universes.
Taping the Sun’s core power though would work. The Sun detonates 800 Billion Megatons every second we humans at our best did not have more than 100,000 megatons at the top of the cold war. And there are stars 100 times bigger and 10,000,000 times brighter.
And so it ends for now.
Show Spoiler ▼
2013 = Season 1, 10 episodes. +1 OVA
2014 = Season 2, 10 episodes. +1 OVA
2015 = Season 3, 10 episodes.
20?? = Drei, ?? episodes.
Assuming Drei gets at least another 10 episodes,
that would make Prisma Ilya the second biggest Fate adaptation in the franchise, that’s quite neat.
(I’m counting by cumulative episodes; Silver Link has at least 32 episodes to its name, while Ufotable has 51 episodes + Heaven’s Feel movies to its name)
It would be nicer if Drei could get a full-blown 2-cour given the lengthier and more serious source material.
I continued to be moderately mystified by how Prisma Illya keeps getting sequels. Not disappointed, certainly. I just don’t see the clear profit motive. Hopefully it’ll keep on to the end of the source!
BD sales numbers? my working hypothesis is they generated enough income in each season to fund next with money to spare…
That’s the usual assumption. But then again, I’ve never heard of this being a HUGE seller, and I somehow doubt Silver Link is animating it on the cheap (Non Non Biyori could be animated forever with marginal BD/DVD sales since it’s probably not super expensive to animate).
Then there’s opportunity cost—if it’s not making money hand over fist, why keep making it when they could devote their resources to trying to create a smash hit? And sequels usually sell less than the books they’re sequels to, though sometimes they drive sales of the previous book (or that’s the hope).
I also doubt the publisher is pushing for repeated seasons, since any sales bump they were liable to get, they probably saw early on. Maybe Silver Link just likes the nice, steady income stream. *shrugs* If so, that works for me.
It warms my heart so much knowing that every year until probably 2018 at the very least, we’ll have a season of Prisma Illya to remind us just how beautiful the world is. Never stop riding that Prisma gravy train SL. Never god damn stop.
Anyway, having read the manga, I’m not really that concerned over the changes. It’s sort of understandable why’d they go for the relatively safer ending compared to the bombshell of a cliffhanger that 2wei had. I could think of a few reasons why that was the case but overall, Herz has been quite a treat. Being one who really misses the slice of life chapters in Prisma ever since 3rei started rolling in, I actually probably like this a tad bit better than the previous season. I understand the grievances of some fans regarding this but it’s all pretty fine and dandy, I say. There’s a few ways on how they’ll handle 3rei and all of them seemed reasonably acceptable to me.
And with all of that being said, I can only imagine that Prisma is deluged with merchandising because the BDs for each season aren’t really anything to write home about. Well whatever. Who cares? We’ve got 3rei heading our way I couldn’t be any happier.
Nice of you to ride the Prisma train again Stilts. We’ve still got a few more years to go before the ride ends.
Perhaps the CEO’s of the Producer teams, saw what Impact Illyia’s Death in UBW caused in the INet at that time. Even i felled sadness, see her Dying (Good Job btw). So this Earthquake of Emotions of her Death, perhaps opened their Eyes in how many Fans know this Illyia’s Story
Perhaps fate illya as a whole generates enough revenue to continue making new seasons, aside from the BD sales. I feel like the first 6 episodes of this season were there to not only conserve costs before they start animating the amazing fight scenes, but also to please the fanbase and improve sales with yuri loli antics. Silver Link might of animated a lot of fluff/filler episodes (which were pretty entertaining anyway), but whatever they did, if it means the series will continue, then I’m all for it~
If it’s coming out any time soon, a 2-cour will probably be impossible without padding due to lack of content. So I think a regular 1 cour should suffice, if they can find a good stopping point. The manga is monthly, after all.
If I remember correctly the vessel (Irisviel/Illyasviel) loses it’s function as a human near the end of the Holy Grail war. That being the case the price doesn’t seem that far off from her original purpose. Though in this case she’s fully conscious and in control it seems.
https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya%20Zwei%20Herz%20-%2010%20-%20Large%2017.jpg
In case anyone has realized what just happened, Illya’s Zwei form took a FULL POWERED EA AND WON. Let me remind you that EA is capable of destroying a planet. And just to put that on perspective, how many characters in the franchise took on a full powered EA and survived? Noobody. Illya just accomplished a feat no ever did.
There was one thing I didn’t like though. They completely changed the ending of Zwei! In case anyone is curious, Show Spoiler ▼
I could forgive the Slice of Life ending change of the first season, because the Beach Chapters are what follow next after the Bazett battle. Here though, it undercuts the tone Drei setup(which is darker than that the last two series), removes any tension and stakes and fails to establish what kind of threat the new antagonists will be. All we get is a stinger where they just stand around. Oh joy, now I really want to see Drei now.
Stilts edit: Mark your spoilers.
Avalon could probably let you survive a full powered Ea, that said there wouldn’t be anything left to stand on. So that means the energy of the collision tore down the wall separating dimensions. That would explain why the Earth’s still there I guess… Alaya not interfering could probably be linked to Emiya Archer being a card and currently on the scene but that’s just my opinion.
Avalon is just a temporary invincibility. Saber could survive the initial blast but when she comes out of it, she’s dead. Compared to Zwei Form though, which is basically chanelling infinite mana from the multiverse, its not even close.
If maintaining the blast from Ea could overcome Avalon, Saber wouldn’t have won against Gil. Also it’s stated that none of the 5 magics can overcome Avalon. Zwei Form is an application of the second magic meaning Quintet Fire should be similar to Zelretch’s Ether cannon.
If Avalon did have a time limit, Ea should too. In that case The same goes for Illya as Zwei form will eventually destroy her if used continuously.
Is the Enuma Elish magic in the first place? I’m a big fan of the Fate series and I’ve read pages of theory craft on Gilgamesh’s power. Seems like a never-ending divide in regards to ranking the power of the EA.
What I want to believe though, is that Enuma Elish at full power cannot be stopped by anything, but Gil just never uses it at full power because there will be no world for him to stand on afterwards.
Gil > Ilya
I don’t think this hurts Drei at all. This is about the tone of 2wei and the arc being told there. This kind of ending worked for 2wei. Drei can start with insane darkness almost out of the gate. Have them blast the hell out of Luvia’s house and take Miyu. There you go, darker tone set.
You also have to respect the difference in the situations. The manga picked up almost immediately after 2wei finished. So you could have that kind of insane cliffhanger since it started up the next arc in the same year. But it could be a year before we start Drei. Some cliffhangers are too much to have people sit on.
Are you telling me really that people who got through all these episodes would not be happy about another season without the manga’s cliffhanger?
What you think about the cliffhanger depends on the viewer though. Good ones would want audience to wait for more. I would have certainly tune back in if I didn’t read the manga.
You also brought another issue. Drei will be forced from the start with its own anime original padding just to setup the new antagonists. As much as I enjoyed Prisma Illya, Silver Link has not done a very good job in that area.
And even if we don’t address the sequel, it hurts the series itself. It completely botches everything that was setup the last few episodes. Why is there an alternate grail in the mountain? What exactly was Miyu running from on her own universe? What the happened Gil after he was defeated? The manga answers this immediately at the aftermath of the fight. Here though, everyone just forgets about it and start the antics. Its very jarring.
Cliffhanger endings only suck if there is no guarantee of a sequel. Deadman Wonderland is a specific title that I refuse to purchase due the fact we’ll never get a a continuation and the anime leaves so many unanswered questions. The author even said that if the series were to continue it would likely be a reboot. It should also be noted that cliffhangers don’t have a substantial effect on sales either. Aldnoah ended it’s first season on a cliffhanger and still sold pretty well despite this. So in all honesty I see very few reasons they needed to do this ending. By doing this they effectively have to waste time (like frag mentioned) setting things up again when everything could have already been in motion when Drei started. Personally I’m taking an educated guess that they are trying to pad out the series considering the manga isn’t finished yet. It sucks running out of material so by doing this they can effectively drag out the plot so it doesn’t catch up so fast. It likely has NOTHING to do with the ending making audiences wait. As I said that has no effect on sales which is what they care about. While it’s not the WORST thing a studio has done to an adaptation (cough Naruto filler hell) I just don’t like the changes.
Fate Illya doesn’t the crutch most adaptations do. It is a simple fact that the studio plans to adapt the whole manga. They obviously planned to do so from the very beginning. Sales would have to be ATROCIOUS for them to stop but considering this is a “Fate” series the name alone can carry it to decent sales. Simple as that.
Show Spoiler ▼
Stilts edit: What’s going on, all? Mark your spoilers!
Even if spoiler, it was wrong though!
Gin was weak because Illya split him into two by pushing him out of the Grail while he was reincarnating. That’s why he complains about his missing link and generally why he looks like a kid: it’s essentially only half of him. Remember, Gin was the 8th Archer card – but the two had to exist separately because of that mishap.
It was also why Ea got beat – Gin wasn’t able to fully reform even after re-entering his card-self. One of the many disappointing moments in the last ep are omitting these explanations, which were clearly spelt out in the manga.
As for the last second characters… Show Spoiler ▼
She did not take anything. Ea was not at full power because Show Spoiler ▼
I think the only thing that matters is….woo Drei confirmed! I mean that is awesome news. It seemed likely they’d do it, but darn it I’m relieved as heck.
As to the change, I don’t mind it. I mean think about it, the gap between this season and next could be a long one. Maybe next summer. So hitting people with a harsh cliffhanger and then saying “well….see you later” would be extreme. Plus I think this actually works pretty well. It lets everyone have a mental rest period and let the message of everything that happened sink in. So long as they quickly get into the new material I don’t think it’s a big deal.
It wasn’t the best season to be sure. A bit too much slice of life in the first half. You needed some of that, but not all of it. But, when the tone shifted this show became awesome almost immediately. That’s just how good this show can be. The first battle with Gilgamesh was amazing and frankly so was Illya’s Zwei form. She had to basically turn her entire being into magical circuits to channel that much power, but holy crap that was impressive.
Can’t wait for Drei.
This all reminds me of why I most enjoy blogging originals or adaptations whose sources aren’t in English. There’s this giant disconnect between how I (as an almost-has-never-read-the-source viewer) and a bunch of commenters are looking at the show. I understand the feeling, but I almost don’t care how the source was. All I care about is whether what I’m watching is good!
As for the cliffhanger, I agree. Take Rokka no Yuusha—the cliffhanger on that was too egregious for me, so I spoiled myself on what’s coming ahead (though part of that’s also ’cause I doubt there’ll be another season). If the cliffhanger had been too much, and I had to wait a year? Well, I might have been able to make it, ’cause I’m weird like that, but many viewers wouldn’t have. That would have almost been rude to the viewers—though I think that depends on what specifically happens. Which I don’t want to know until the next season airs, haha
So cross referenced this episode with the manga and woah boy………I feel anime kind of botched up this whole fight.
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Stilts edit: Marking the whole thing as spoilers since I saw what looked like a few. Please be careful.
I still don’t get the complaints about the CGI. It looks fine. People need to watch some anime with actual bad CGI to see what bad is and what good is. It’s anime! It all looks fake!
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Stilts edit: Marking as spoilers, just to be safe.
Comparing a dog turd to rat feces doesn’t make the dog turd suddenly not stink. Are there worse example of 3DCGI? Certainly. As much as I love Arslan (I changed my avatar because of how much I love it) the CGI is REALLY noticeably bad. And it’s used for every large scale fight. But that show at least has the excuse of having a rather low budget. What’s Fate Illya’s excuse? Very few moments in most of the major fights used CGI which is what made them awesome. You felt the impact of every single clash, punch etc. What makes Attack on Titan’s animation awesome? Well when you see Eren punch someone you see can see their face wrinkle, hear bones crack and much more. This happens because both him and his opponent are in the same world.
Compare that to fights against CGI opponents and you don’t get any of that. If one of Gil’s fists punch Illya you don’t feel the impact of the punch. You feel like Illya is just acting like she’s getting hit. Which is what my “fake” comment meant. This slows the action down because the characters can’t exactly go back and forth as quickly.
Like I said in the manga Show Spoiler ▼
Even if we are going by anime’s logic she was in really bad shape after the fight. Yet Kuro was able to stand just fine despite this as if she was never in pain at all. I’m not buying it sorry.
The two of them Show Spoiler ▼
The writers wanted to have their cake and eat it with a happy ending but it ruins the tension that the manga cliffhanger set up. Illya had Miyu Show Spoiler ▼
At first I was pretty disappointed with how they changed the ending, but after watching it one more time I kind of realize that … isn’t this the ending of 2wei that I would like to see in the first place? I still prefer if they did the cliffhanger version in the manga, but this is not bad too, I guess.
Overall, it’s still Fate/Kaleid. I started watching this season with some expectations and doubts and it did everything I expected (suspected that they would change the ending and they did, lol.) For me, Fate/Kaleid is a SoL anime with awesome fights and an interesting storyline that doesn’t keep you bored along the way.
Anyway, thank you for blogging this anime Stilts. It’s been enjoyable reading your impressions. 🙂
I like going into things with as few preconceptions (which includes reading as little of the source as I can manage) because then I can judge it based on its own merits. For all manga readers are griping, I liked the the ending just fine. Maybe I don’t know what I’m missing, but it doesn’t seem bad regardless. It’s cool that you can see both sides : )
Np!
The only other 10 ep show I can think of is Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, Aren’t They?. 11 are somewhat more common, but still behind the most frequent 12 and 13
Forgot Blood Lad
There are a lot of shows with 10 episodes out there! Just among ones I’ve personally watched: Chaika season two (should have been 12, though), Date a Live II, Inari Konkon, Kyousougiga, Noucome, Kore wa Zombie desu ka of the Dead, Sekai no Senki II, Ebiten, Seitokai no Ichizon Lv 2. A lot of sequels, for some reason…
At a guess, the sequels were already going to be produced but they decided to go for a lower number of episodes to reduce the cost.
And yes, the end of Chaika was really rushed. Kyousougiga was fine though.
This really was the weakest season so far. The balance between comedy and action was lost, there were some pretty weak episodes in there (which is especially hurtful because there’s only 10 eps) and honestly, I thought the final arc didn’t hold a candle to the fight with Bazett last season. While it started out in an awesome way, its momentum didn’t keep up and the final fight with shota-Gil wasn’t too interesting – more like something out of any other shonen-type show. Fate has been dissapointing with its fights all year now…
I do appreciate the character development we got (even if I feel Miyu’s revelation didn’t get the screentime it deserved) and there were still plenty of hilarious/cool moments, but in the end…eh. I thought the whole show was okay-ish at best. There’s far better sequels this season, so it was kinda dissapointing.
Ah well, at least we’re getting 3rei next year. Let’s hope that season redeems the series, there’s still room for plenty of interesting stuff, after all (she-Gil? Huh. Bring it on!)
Late recall. I recall Attack on Titan did the same thing this anime did and change the last half of the last episode from an action cliffhanger into something more mild with just a tease after the credits like here.
And just like here many manga readers were very upset some at the moment thinking they ruined the whole thing.
No not ruined just different in both cases as a non manga reader I quite liked the last episodes.
This is a clear medium difference and in both cases the anime producers who were quite faithful to a lot of the manga decided that a calm ending better for a final climax episode instead of a high tension cliffhanging move into the next work.
I have now read up on Attack on Titan it’s not going to be hard to switch back to canon there and here I’m sure they can get close.
Plus here they avoid a dumb enemy instantly there and ready to fight after a completely unexpected thing happens.
I feel that kuro was a “space occupier” she doesn’t really add anything to the story other than being illya’ double for whatever reason. I mean what is her rolle in the storyline exactly? Why was she even needed? She just seems like a creeper character just for the sake of having perversion in the story for no reason. I’m just getting tired of this “girl rival only ” thing that has gotten into the heads of studios and directors over the last few years. mahou shoujo used to be about girls using their feminine traits to save the day now it’s about torture to get older males to have feitshes come true with underage girls. Look at the nineties mahou shoujo for example shows were dark but still had a sophisticated maturity about it that anyone of any age or gender could enjoy. I’m not saying this types of shows are bad it would be nice to see a grade school magical girl character like a boy her own age again.
Illya is basically trying to be Nanoha.
Magical Girl Nanoha’s roots are that they took a minor character from an erotic doujinshi named Nanoha, gave her unique magical girl superpowers, took you through an insane plot twist later, and did it all with some slight perversion because it occupied late night television slots… so panty shots galore.
Fate/Kaleid Prisma Illya’s roots are that they took a minor character from an erotic doujinshi named Illya, gave her unique magical girl superpowers etc etc.
The similarities are on purpose and so is the timeslot, which is late at night, for older anime viewers. All the fanservice is so that Silver Link sells more copies and most of it is in the source material.
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Also, regarding Kuro being useless… ummm… when they first fought gilgamesh didn’t she kind of save Bazett? Also, wasn’t she the sole reason that Illya saw a different side to her mom. She’s also the one that’s pushed Illya to be more vocal about wanting to know Miyu’s secret. She’s always and will continue to be a relevant character.
To be perfectly honest, I don’t like her whole mana transfer thing all that much, but yuri fans do and their money’s helping keep the whole thing afloat, and her existence and peculiarity still doesn’t make the anime yuri so both audiences are enjoying the experience.
Kuro may have pushed Illya to be vocal about Miyu’s past but the point is they NEVER fully talked about it until AFTER a “the plot” forced her to. Kuro didn’t have to do anything and this outcome would have still happened. As far as main characters go Kuro is definitely the least relevant. Right from the beginning it was pretty apparent she was merely a fanservice tool more than anything else.
Also adding fanservice for no reason other than sales (which actually doesn’t effect sales that much btw,Grisaia + Triangle X did TERRIBLE and Monsume is only doing average) isn’t exactly a commendable thing to do. Especially when you skip character development scenes to make them more erotic. That’s scummy shit bro =/.
Of course this isn’t the only anime to do that, in fact I’m certain it happens all the time. Still sucks my left nut.
I know that why I feel the mahou shoujo of the 80’s and 90s are sooooo much better than the new breed because they had a sophisticated maturity about them that anyone could appreciate. Also creators were a lot more vocal on doing the stories their way instead of letting hermits bully them into changing it for whatever reason. The mana thing with kuro wouldn’t be so bad if she was a teenager or adult because that would at least make sense. This show nanoha vivid and black bullet are the reason grade school characters can’t be protagonists anymore, they would be creeper up to much in order for the hermit crowd to enjoy them and alienate some of us who want to see a traditional magical girl series. Leatherhead333 totally agree with you