“Roaring Thunder and the Underground Labyrinth”


「雷鳴と地下迷宮」 (Raimei to Chika Meikyuu)

So in a sequence of events which I could only describe to be bad luck, my laptop died on me and I had to send it in for repairs. Without further delays, I should immediately proceed towards getting this post sorted out.

To begin the episode, the pacing takes a step back from adventuring, briefly introducing us to the dynamics within his classroom. As far as I can tell, he’s a pretty fantastic professor who is loved and well respected by his students, despite his neurotic mood swings and resting grouchy face. Not that you can entirely blame him, considering he has a class filled with eccentrics and misfits that continue to test his patience. But the moment of calm does not last as we’re immediately thrown back into the storm, when it turns out the reason behind his particularly bad mood from that day stemmed from his favourite tearoom facing the threat of potential closure. To be honest, getting extremely worked up about a favourite tearoom is exactly what I’d expect of Waver Velvet-kun.

It turns out there’s some magical mischief going on, with swathes of electrical energy being redirected from the tearoom to an underground lair. While Waver’s theoretical knowledge might be considerable, his forays into this lair exposes a limitation in his practical talents, whereby a single electric rabbit easily accosts him. (Electric Lagombi anyone?). His students follow up on him to make sure he’s okay – and he’s at least alive, though he definitely comes out of the encounter significantly worse for wear. For the second consecutive episode, our culprit turns out to be yet another geriatric magus who’s slightly off his rockers in seeking to pursue the Root. Fortunately, Waver’s confident bluff allows them to escape a potentially life threatening encounter with Gueldoa – that army of giant electric rabbits did look pretty terrifying. You’d think that saving the tearoom would have meant that everything would end well. Unfortunately, Waver is immediately hit by bad news right after, namely that both of the Clock Tower’s positions for the next Holy Grail War had been taken, meaning he is now unable to fulfill his life goals of getting revenge and bringing about some semblance of justice for Rider. Though any of us familiar with Fate/stay Night and its adaptations would have been well aware that this would happen. Not a happy outcome, but I’m sure our grumpy boy will bounce back from it.

Over the past three episodes, I think the series has done a fantastic job of portraying a hardened and grouchier Waver Velvet who’s become this jaded professor after his participation in the previous Holy Grail War, while very much carrying a good chunk of the zany characteristics that defined him when he was a teenager. It’s refreshing to see a familiar character who doesn’t put up with other people’s shit anymore, and complains all the time, especially coming from a professor. Nevertheless, when push comes to shove, he would easily push himself and risk his life to protect his students – leadership qualities that are very reminiscent of Iskandar to me. This really builds up on the two cours of Fate/Zero , and in my opinion, going into the Lord El-Melloi Case Files without having watched Fate/Zero means you’re missing out on the complete experience. In terms of the substantive content, I’ve been largely satisfied with the murder mysteries we’ve had on hand because it’s been fascinating to see them play out. However, I would also like to see a change in formula, such as investigations into: vanishing magical objects, embezzlement of clock tower funding, locked room mysteries. Maybe add on some explorations into his students background, especially Gray as I said last episode, who seems to have some kind of connection to Saber. That should add variety to the series and would also allow it to expand on depth, which means two birds with one stone. Anyways, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss. As always, thanks for reading my post! I’m undecided but rest assured, it’s guaranteed that this series will be covered on this blog. Make sure to pay attention for the season schedule to find out the rest of the information.

20 Comments

  1. Yep, full of cameos from apocrypha and fgo. That the opening scene with Rienes and the director is the same director and room as where kairi got the offer to join the Red side in fate apocrypha. And then Caules one of the master of black is waver’s student and of course he would have frankenstein on a poster in his room.

    lyc11
  2. https://randomc.net/image/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2023.jpg
    I see Pikachu evolved. Wanted to see those army of Pikachu attack Servants, if any could possibly be summoned. Wonder if Frankenstein or Tesla would get stronger if they were supercharged.

    https://randomc.net/image/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2005.jpg
    Who is this girl? I hope she lives and doesn’t die. Want to know if there is any point in her fashion sense and if her eyepatch is simply fashion. Or maybe her fashion has to do with her magic.

    https://randomc.net/image/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2034.jpg
    How old is this dude here and how old is Goldolf Musik in FGO? I like to estimate how old is ritsuka fujimaru in the time period when the 5th Fuyuki grail war took place.

    Greed
    1. He’s 13-14 years old here. Case Files happens a few months before FSN and FSN happens in Feb 2004. Gordolf is 29 in FGO, at least during the New Year event earlier this year he says he’ll be turning 29.

      belatkuro
    2. thanks for the responses
      Mmmm. wonder if Yvette’s fashion sense is meant to please Waver. Am curious if Waver stopped being a virgin by now. Notably I am wondering what is with the virgin joke so many times in anime. Not surprised he is popular, he turned very handsome.

      Anyway, based on Goldolf’s age, I assume Ritsuka is probably a 3 year old around this time. They never explain how old is he

      Greed
  3. Thank goodness you didn’t say anything negative about Svin, I was prepared to rush to his defence since he’s a character I can see people unfamiliar with the story misunderstanding

    Mami
    1. If anything I’m interested to know just how much “animal” Svin has in him and if it’s connected to why Waver doesn’t want him around Gray too much. That half-second where he went from gushing about her to stopped dead with crazy-eyes makes me worry that whoever she is, she unintentionally does bad things to his head.

      Aex
      1. Its not quite that dark, he imprinted on her and Waver keeps him away because he can’t have his apprentice inconvenienced by him. As for how animal he is …well not sure if the anime will adapt the part where they go into that

        Mami
  4. I’ve been waiting for this and I got questions.

    https://randomc.net/image/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2016.jpg
    Is Fate Apocrypha in the same time line to Fate Zero and Fate Stay Night? Does that mean Fate Apocrypha events were concurrent to Fate Zero?

    https://randomc.net/image/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2039.jpg
    I know Prisma Illya is what Lyrical Nanoha is to Triangle Heart. So where in Fate’s name does Luvia come from aside from Prisma Illya?

    *Insert Fate Fandom Gigguk Face here*

    Henrietta Brix
    1. Apocrypha and Zero can’t happen in the same timeline. Apocrypha changed the whole story by moving the Greater Grail from Japan to Romania in WWII at the end of the Third Holy Grail War, which prevents Zero from happening because no Greater Grail, no Grail War. Caulus is probably just getting the Luvia treatment here and getting inserted into another timeline by the anime world in a way that won’t make huge waves, but is still fun for people who know who he is.

      Speaking of Luvia, she was also at the very end of the Unlimited Blade Works anime, so even if it’s just for the anime she exists outside of Prisma Illya. This could even be happening during anime UBW, so maybe Shirou and Rin will be at Clock Tower in 2-3 years here. As far as all the animes so far are concerned, the time period we’re seeing now is a total blank aside from Waver becoming a teacher.

      Aex
      1. So correct me if I’m wrong…

        Discounting Prisma Illya cos clear cut it’s the Lyrical Nanoha to Triangle Heart…

        Fate Zero, Fate Wavel and Fate Stay Night all happen in 1 world line.

        Fate Apocrypha is another world line

        Hollo Ataraxia is another world line

        Grand Order is another world line

        Correct?

        Henrietta Brix
      2. The grail war hasn’t even started yet so its obviously not the UBW timeline and till the very last novel case files doesn’t pick a route. You won’t be seeing Rin pr Shirou

        Mami
      3. If we follow Nazu’s potential plotline for what he had originally planned called UBW After (the story of Shirou becoming Archer)

        Then this would be the plot.

        – Fate/Zero
        – Then there’s Waver aiming to become Lord El-Melloi. Basically the recap of Episode 1.
        – UBW. Waver is already Lord El-Melloi II by then, since the Clocktower is the one that handles the cleaning after the UBW Holy War. Shirou and Tohsaka are students of another teacher at the Clocktower. This explains Tohsaka’s rivalry with Luvia aside from both having romantic interests in Shirou.
        – So around Tohsaka and Shirou arriving to the Clocktower and them being officially recognized as students is the period of this series is taking place.

        All in all i hope Nazu or any other Light Novel writter ever write UBW After. A shame we only get small hints and spoilers but not an actual Visual Novel or Light Novel.

        Shadow
  5. https://randomc.net/image/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files/Lord%20El-Melloi%20II%20Case%20Files%20-%2003%20-%2016.jpg
    I’m as impressed as these two on Caules’ PC. IIRC there are hardly any graphics cards that can output to three monitors back then. He either needs to get a monitor that can accept TV-in or use multiple graphics cards. Too bad he didn’t get a chance to answer Flat’s question.

    (Doesn’t look like he’s doing any NSFW stuff on it too)

    theirs

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