Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya is a spin off of the Fate Stay Night franchise that is set in a different timeline where Illya and Emiya live happily with their maids in a house. They appear to lead normal lives until Illya is chosen to be a magical girl who collects cards that contain heroic spirits. Illya is a bit slow to pick it up, but soon is able to help catch spirits. She is no where near as talented as her partner Miyu who is good at almost everything except flying. Illya thinks of the whole process as a game and is shocked when she actually starts to bleed during a capture. This leads Illya’s power going out of control on two occasions when she is helping to catch cards. Miyu does not want someone unstable like that helping her, so Illya has to find her courage to continue helping Miyu.
Needed more of this girl.
Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya has a lot of problems with pretty much blatantly copying other magical girl shows. The most obvious would be Cardcaptor Sakura since the show is about attacking cards to have them revert to card form just like in Cardcaptor Sakura. Also Illya’s outfit is a lot like one of Sakura’s down to the wand which is basically a direct copy. Also Illya and Miyu’s card capturing relationship is pretty similar to Sakura and Li’s. The writers obviously knew what they were doing too because they had Ruby and Sapphire talk about how classic and common to magical girls shows it was to have a mysterious transfer student come to school.
The ways the show does distinguish itself from other magical shows are not always the best. The most notable way is the mascot is the wand. The wands were kind of creepy. Also does not make much sense that the one in charge of training a magical girl is such an airhead and obsessed with the image of magical girls. Usually the trainer is obsessed with the goal, but Ruby was only worried about the cliches about magical girls. Sapphire was a much better guide overall.
The writers of Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya did do well with how the different battles were presented. Having an ambush when they came in was a nice touch. Also coming after the magical girls when they were weakened was a good move as well. These heroic spirits were supposed to be the winners of many combats they would not all just sit patiently waiting for the magical girls to show up when it was convenient. Unfortunately they really liked to pretend battles were over prematurely. That was used too often and got to be pretty predictable.
The fanservice shown was out of control. Girls that are 10 or 11 years old should not be so consumed with sex, obsessed with homosexual boys, lusting after their brother, or many other things shown in this show. There were also many scenes depicting the same girls in gym uniforms, swimsuits, or naked with strategic placements to hide parts. This show seems to be trying to attract a very specific demographic and it is not hiding it well.
Overall the story for Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya was really weak. It was mostly taken from other better sources and spiced up with inappropriate scenes. The fighting was the best part of this show. It was a good thing there was a great deal of fighting or it would have been completely boring.
Score: 2/5
